Riccardo Frizza is Musical Director and Artistic Director of the Bergamo Donizetti Opera Festival and Honorary Conductor of the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir.

A native of Brescia, he trained at the Conservatory of Milan and at the Accademia Chigiana di Siena and is widely regarded as one of today’s leading conductors, regularly collaborating with the world’s most prestigious opera houses.

He is in great demand as a conductor of opera, but also devotes himself with passion, as can be seen from his busy schedule, to the symphonic repertoire, which has taken him to the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonia Orchestra, Tonkünstler Orchestra, Euskadiko Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Haydn and Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra.
From the spring of 2022 to that of 2025, he served as Chief Conductor of the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir, whose repertoire he is enriching with masterpieces by Richard Strauss and Mahler, but also Italian orchestral works by Martucci and Respighi. He has created an intense partnership with these historic ensembles, now continuing as their Honorary Conductor, in Budapest, on tour and in recordings. Their first CD, released in spring 2024, consists of the Requiem and Stabat mater by Elisabetta Brusa, one of the most innovative and eminent composers in the world.

Since 2017, Riccardo Frizza has been musical director of the Bergamo Donizetti Festival, where he conducted Il castello di Kenilworth in 2018, Lucrezia Borgia in 2019 for the first performance of the new critical edition of the score published by Ricordi and Fondazione Teatro Donizetti, Marin Faliero and Belisario in 2020, L’elisir d’amore in 2021, La Favorite in 2022, Il diluvio universale in 2023 and Roberto Devereux in 2024. His Donizetti repertoire also includes Lucia di Lammermoor, Linda di Chamounix, Maria Stuarda, La fille du régiment, Don Pasquale and Anna Bolena.
On 4 December 2024, he was also appointed the artistic director of the Donizetti Opera.

In recent seasons, he has conducted operas and concerts at the Lyric Opera of Chicago (Norma), Gran Teatre del Liceu (Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, Un ballo in maschera), Teatro la Fenice (Lucia di Lammermoor, Ernani, Aida), Müpa Budapest (I puritani, Aida), Parma Verdi Festival (Falstaff, Simon Boccanegra), Bilbao Opera (Lucia di Lammermoor, La clemenza di Tito), Dallas Opera (Falstaff), Teatro alla Scala (Il pirata), Opéra Bastille (I puritani), Opera di Roma (Anna Bolena, Rigoletto), Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (Omaggio a Caruso), Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (Rigoletto, L’amico Fritz), Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (La Sonnambula), Teatro di San Carlo (Il barbiere di Siviglia, Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda), Teatro Real, Madrid (La Cenerentola), Metropolitan Opera (Lucia di Lammermoor), Teatro Comunale, Bologna (La Traviata, Werther), Teatro Regio, Turin (I Vespri siciliani, Le villi), Teatro Grande, Brescia (Madama Butterfly, Brescia version), Dresdner Philharmonie (I puritani). In 2020, he devised the opera-concert-recording project The Three Queens created for Sondra Radvanovsky, performed at theatres in Chicago, Barcelona, Naples and Madrid. In 2024 he conducted symphonic concerts in Madrid, Vienna, the Basque Country, and the UK where he completed a triumphant eight-concert tour beginning in Birmingham and ending in London.

Highlights for 2025 include La Fanciulla del West and Un ballo in maschera at the Teatro Comunale, Bologna, La Favorite at ABAO Bilbao Opera, Roberto Devereux, Medea and Partenope at the Teatro San Carlo, Naples, La Sonnambula at the Metropolitan Opera, Caterina Cornaro for the opening of the Donizetti Opera and several symphonic concerts with the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Teatro Comunale di Bologna and George Enescu Philharmonic. In 2026 he is scheduled to return to Naples for three symphonic concerts, Nabucco, Mitridate Re di Ponto and a concert performance of Aida, at the Teatro del Maggio for Pagliacci and Cavalleria Rusticana, and at the Royal Ballet and Opera for I puritani. That same year, he will lead a series of concerts in Budapest with the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and embark on a tour across the Basque Country with the Euskadiko Orkestra.

In June 2021 he won the Premio Ópera XXI for best musical director. The accolade, awarded by the Spanish association of theatres, festivals and permanent opera seasons of the same name, was assigned for the outstanding Lucia di Lammermoor staged at Bilbao Ópera in October 2019.

In November 2024 a jury of Spain’s leading music critics awarded him the “Amics del Liceu” prize for Best Musical Direction of the current season (Un ballo in maschera).

His range of recordings is impressive, above all in the field of opera. Since 2022, three CDs have been released with singers of the calibre of Sondra Radvanovsky (The Three Queens, Pentatone), Nadine Sierra (Made for opera, Deutsche Grammophon), Javier Camarena (Signor Gaetano, Pentatone) and Jessica Pratt (Delirio,‎ Tancredi Records). The DVD of Mascagni’s opera L’amico Fritz (Dynamic, 2023) with the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and Donizetti’s Il Diluvio Universale (Dynamic, 2024) as well as the CD of I puritani (Euroarts, 2024) also received critical acclaim.

On 2nd June 2024 he was appointed Cavaliere al merito della Repubblica Italiana by the Italian President, Mattarella. On 1st June 2025 he conducted a concert at the Quirinal Palace in the presence of the President and the highest State authorities, leading the Teatro di San Carlo Orchestra in the traditional Republic Day concert, which was also broadcast live on Rai 1.