Antonio Pappano

Antonio Pappano is one of the most exciting opera conductors to emerge in the 1990s, enjoying an astonishingly fast rise to the top of his profession.

He was born in London of Italian parents. His main musical education was in the United States, where he studied piano with Norma Verilli, composition with Arnold Franchetti, and conducting with Gustav Maier. His work with the Lyric Opera of Chicago led to his becoming an assistant to Daniel Barenboim in preparing for that maestro's Bayreuth productions of Tristan, Parsifal, and a complete Ring cycle.

His operatic conducting debut was at the Norwegian Opera, leading quickly to an appointment as music director there. He was soon noted for his English National Opera, the San Francisco Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Berlin Staatsoper, and Théâtre du Chatelet in Paris. At the age of thirty-two (1992) he was appointed Music Director of Théâtre Royale de la Monnaie, where he is responsible for both opera and concert performances.

He made a spectacular debut at the Vienna Staatsoper in 1993, replacing Christoph von Dohnanyi at the last minute to lead a new production of Wagner's Siegfried.

He was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra has also conducted the Oslo Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre de Lyon, the Chicago Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, and the London Symphony Orchestra, and the Cleveland Orchestra.

He records for the EMI Classics label. His album of Puccini's La Rondine won two Grammophone Awards ((Best Opera Recording and Record of the Year), as well as the French Choc du Monde de la Musique, two Diapason d'Or awards, the USA Critics' Award, and the German Deutsche Schallplattenkritik award.

In March, 1999, at the age of thirty-nine, he was announced to assume the role of Music Director of Britain's Royal Opera Housek Covent Garden following the planned retirement of Bernard Haitink in 2002.