I’m ending my opera year conducting not one, but two firsts for the Teatro di San Carlo. On 6th December, the prestigious Neapolitan theatre is opening its new season with an opera that revolves around a legend and which, for well-known historical reasons, has itself become a legend, particularly since its staging in the latter half of the 20th century, when Maria Callas became to all effects the embodiment of Cherubini’s Medea (for that’s what we’re referring to) and a vocal, interpretative and social sensation. Amazingly, Medea has never been performed at the Teatro San CarIo, and it’s for this reason that I am honoured to be breaking with convention, working on something of historical significance for this theatre that I love so much and where, during the season we’re about to open, I will have the opportunity to bring many operatic and symphonic projects to fruition. In between performances of Medea, Teatro San Carlo is also staging the world premiere of Partenope, the only opera by Ennio Morricone. Composed thirty years ago to a libretto by Guido Barbieri and Sandro Cappelletto, Partenope, like a true deity, had to face a series of vicissitudes before obtaining redress. The source of this production is ‘Napoli millenaria’, the celebration of the 2500th anniversary of the founding of the city of Neapolis, which is reinterpreting with thousands of broad-ranging events the origin of the legend, the link between legend and history, and the spirit that has formed the identity of one of the most important cities in the world and one of the driving forces of western civilisation over a period spanning 2500 years. And so, it seems to me a fitting choice to celebrate these two legends: Cherubini’s Medea, which brought elegance and magnificent music to classical opera just over two hundred years ago, and Morricone’s Partenope, which retraces the foundational pathways of the legend with a musical sensitivity that is absolutely original. Both operas have excellent casts and are the result of substantial work by the production teams: stage direction of Medea is by Mario Martone and of Partenope by the artist Vanessa Beecroft, her first experience staging a theatre production.