Roberto Abbado, awarded the prestigious “Premio Abbiati” by the Italian Music Critics Association, is Musical Director of the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia and, from 2018, of Parma’s Festival Verdi. He studied orchestra conducting under Franco Ferrara at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice and at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. Musical Director of the Münchner Rundfunkorchester from 1991 to 1998, he has worked with many ensembles and conducted numerous world premieres and new opera productions. Among his most popular recordings: I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Tancredi, Don Pasquale, Turandot, Verismo Arias, L’amour and Arias for Rubini (Decca); Bel Canto, Revive, the DVDs of Fedora, Ermione, Zelmira, Mosè in Egitto and of the New Year’s Concert at La Fenice in Venice (2008).

Photo credit Miro Zagnoli