The Italian conductor Riccardo Frizza, who is musical director of the Donizetti Opera Festival in Bergamo, has been nominated for the best conductor prize in the 2020 International Opera Awards. The competition is organised each year by the British magazine Opera, the prizes reward the work of the leading lights in the international opera world over the year previous to the event (in this case, 2019) and recognises excellence in a wide range of categories, which include, among others, design, conducting and directing as well as education and outreach. The Donizetti Opera Festival is also among the nominees in the Festival section, .
The prizewinning ceremony would have taken place in a gala at Sadler’s Wells theatre in London on the 4th May, but in light of the lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the ceremony has been postponed until the 21st September.

After his return to Budapest (January 15) to conduct the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in a programme entirely dedicated to Richard Strauss and to the city of his birth, Brescia (January 29), where he conducted the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino opening the concert season with three works by Ludwig van Beethoven, the Italian conductor Riccardo Frizza is again preparing his trip to Budapest, this time to conduct two performances of La sonnambula (Bellini) at the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall (Müpa) on February 9 & 11. The production will be directed by Csaba Némedi with Zuzana Marková and Konu Kim taking the lead roles, Amina and Elvino, respectively. The full cast comprises Mirco Palazzi (Count Rodolfo), Eszter Zemlényi (Lisa), Krisztina Simon (Teresa) and Attila Dobák (Alessio), among others, while maestro Frizza will lead from the podium the Debrecen Kodály Choir and the Pannon Philharmonic.