Grammy Award-Winner Fabio Luisi's Spring Highlights Include AIDA, CENERENTOLA, and London Symphony Debut

Having just added Genoa's prestigious 2014 Grifo d'Oro to honors that include both Grammy and ECHO Klassik Awards, Fabio Luisilooks forward to conducting a wealth of important operatic and orchestral projects this spring. Highlights include premiering a major new production of Verdi's Aida at the Zurich Opera, where he serves as General Music Director, and presenting Joyce DiDonato's company title role debut in Rossini's La Cenerentola at the Metropolitan Opera, where he is Principal Conductor; the final performance will be transmitted live to movie theaters around the world in the Met's celebrated Live in HD series. Tellingly, both Zurich Opera and the Met are among the six opera houses named as finalists for the 2014 International Opera Award for Best Opera Company. The eminent Italian conductor is no less distinguished in the concert hall, and this spring he will make his London Symphony Orchestra debut, return to guest conduct the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Filarmonica della Scala and Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and lead the last two programs of his season with the Zurich Philharmonia.

After leading multiple complete "Ring" cycles - and winning his first Grammy Award - as Principal Conductor of the Metropolitan Opera, the conductor turns once again to Verdi for his second original production of the season at Zurich Opera. One of the most exciting new partnerships he has forged there is with young German director Tatjana Gürbaca, who has just been nominated for the 2014 International Opera Award for Best Director. Last spring, Luisi and Gürbaca premiered a new staging of Verdi's Rigoletto together. Now the two reunite for the great Italian composer's Aida, starring American soprano Latonia Moore in the title role. Moore has already sung Aida at Covent Garden, Hamburg State Opera, and the Met.

Co-starring as Radames is Latvian tenor Aleksandrs Antonenko. Aida opens with an introductory matinee on February 16 followed by a further ten performances (March 2-April 1), all with Luisi on the podium.

Also in Zurich, the conductor leads performances of Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann, in a production by veteran German director Grisha Asagaroff, Zurich's Artistic Director of Operations. Young American tenor Bryan Hymel - the Metropolitan Opera's 2013 Beverley Sills Artist - sings the title role, with French baritone Laurent Naouri in a star turn as the four villains (March 21-April 2).

In October, for his first new Zurich production of the season, Luisi collaborated with company General Manager Andreas Homoki on Beethoven's Fidelio.

In his third season as Principal Conductor of the Metropolitan Opera, Luisi conducts Rossini's effervescent comedy La Cenerentolain. Making her eagerly awaited company role debut as the title character is mezzo Joyce DiDonato. Singing opposite DiDonato as Prince Ramiro is Grammy Award-winning Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez.

Luisi takes the podium for all six performances of the opera (April 21-May 10), the last of which will be transmitted live to movie theaters around the world in the Met's popular Live in HD series.

This season, he brings Puccini back to the house with Madama Butterfly, in a revival of Anthony Minghella's acclaimed staging. South African soprano Amanda Echalaz makes her house debut in the title role, opposite Bryan Hymel's Pinkerton (May 1-9).

For his hotly anticipated debut with the London Symphony Orchestra at Barbican Hall, Luisi leads the venerable British orchestra in Bruckner's Symphony No. 8 and Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23, K. 488, with French pianist Lise de la Salle as soloist (June 19 & 22). He and De la Salle are frequent musical partners; she is his current Artist-in-Residence at the Philharmonia Zurich.

Spring takes Luisi to two further high-profile guest-conducting engagements. He returns to Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra for three performances of an all-French program comprising Saint-Saëns's Third "Organ" Symphony, Honegger's Rugby, and Lalo's Symphonie espagnole; it was with Saint-Saëns that he impressed Seen and Heard International with the "rich texture and fine sense of detail that is [his] calling card" (May 15-18). And back in his native Italy, the conductor leads programs of Richard Strauss, Schumann, and Bernhard Lang with Rome's Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (May 31-June 3), as well as an evening with the Filarmonica della Scala featuring works by Strauss and Saint-Saëns (June 9).

For his final two programs of the season with the Philharmonia Zurich, Luisi directs Mahler's First Symphony and Hartmann'sConcerto funèbre, featuring violinist Hanna Weinmeister (March 16), before reuniting with De la Salle for Rachmaninoff's First Piano Concerto, paired with Beethoven's exuberant Mass in C, as he and the orchestra draw their second season together to a triumphant close (July 6).

Luisi opened his orchestral season with the Cleveland Orchestra.

A list of the conductor's upcoming engagements follows, and more information is available at his web site: fabioluisi.net.

Fabio Luisi: upcoming engagements

Feb 15, 21, 23, 26; March 1
Zurich Opera
Verdi: Don Carlo

March 2
Brunch Concert: Fabio Luisi and Friends
Schmidt: Clarinet Quintet (Fabio Luisi, piano)

Feb 16m; March 2, 6, 9, 13, 16, 19, 22, 26, 29; April 1
Zurich Opera
Verdi: Aida (new production)

March 16m
Philharmonia Zurich
Hartmann: Concerto funèbre (with Hanna Weinmeister, violin)
Mahler: Symphony No. 1

March 21, 25, 28, 30; April 2
Zurich Opera
Offenbach: Les contes d'Hoffmann

April 21, 25, 28, May 2, 6 & 10
Metropolitan Opera
Rossini: La Cenerentola

May 1, 5 & 9
Metropolitan Opera
Puccini: Madama Butterfly

May 15, 16 & 18
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Honegger: Rugby
Lalo: Symphonie espagnole
Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 3

May 31; June 1 & 3
Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
Bernhard Lang: Monadology II: "Don Quixote"
R. Strauss: Don Quixote (Gabriele Geminiani, cello)
Schumann: Symphony No. 1

June 9
Filarmonica della Scala
Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 2 (with Lise de la Salle, piano)
R. Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie

June 19 & 22
London Symphony Orchestra (debut)
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 23, K. 488 (with Lise de la Salle, piano)
Bruckner: Symphony No. 8

July 6
Philharmonia Zurich
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 1 (with Lise de la Salle, piano)
Beethoven: Mass in C, Op. 86

Photo Credit: BALU Photography

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