My schedules, filled with evenings on the podium and in the orchestra pit, to the delight of a music enthusiast like me, are often unpredictable. So, my presence here at the Royal Ballet and Opera in London has coincided with the twenty-fifth anniversary of a career that began conducting Rigoletto at the Teatro Regio, Parma, and has now led me to conduct another Italian romantic masterpiece that I love very much, I Puritani by Vincenzo Bellini. My relationship with this opera, a final swansong from the Swan of Catania, started near the beginning of my career, and I returned to it recently, first in Budapest and then at the Opéra National de Paris. On top of that, I made a recording with the marvellous Dresdner Philharmonie and the MDR Rundufunkchor, with a stellar cast crowned by star Lisette Oropesa. The two CDs received high acclaim, opening the doors to I Puritani in London, with the same enchanting Belcanto singer from the recording, Lisette Oropesa. The rest of the cast are similarly talented and there are great expectations for this new production by Richard Jones. I intend to do full justice to Vincenzo Bellini’s music in this “Parisian” opera, which is exceptionally sophisticated in terms of timbre, expressivity and versatility, placing my trust in the superb colours of the orchestra and chorus of the Royal Opera House, the latter prepared by William Spaulding.

Performances: 30 June and 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 19 July

📷 The Royal Opera © Lowri Cooper