INTRODUCTION
Roberto Rizzi Brignoli graduated with honors in Piano at the G. Verdi Conservatory in Milan, where he also studied composition and conducting. Until 2002, he was Head of Music Services at the Teatro alla Scala and started collaborating with Riccardo Muti, whose appreciation of him resulted in Rizzi Brignoli conducting numerous productions there like Otello, La Traviata, Rigoletto, I due Foscari, L’Elisir d’Amore, Adriana Lecouvreur, and La Fille du Régiment. The turning point of his career and the event which made him internationally renowned was the hugely successful production of Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia at Teatro alla Scala in Milan in the season 1997-1998.
CAREER
As an expert of the Italian and French operatic repertoire, he is a welcome guest at renowned houses and festivals worldwide, including the Dresden Semperoper, the State Operas in Hamburg and Stuttgart, Opera Frankfurt, National Theatre in Mannheim, Aalto-Theater Essen, Bolshoi-Theater Moscow, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Teatro Donizetti in Bergamo, Teatro Comunale in Firenze, Teatro Carlo Felice in Genova, Teatro Verdi in Trieste, Teatro Real de Madrid, Bilbao Opera, Teatro La Maestranza in Seville, Opéra de Lille, Opéra de Marseille, Opéra de Nantes, Opéra d’Avignon, Opéra de Reims, Opéra de Dijon, and Opéra de Lausanne, the Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Théâtre Royal de La Monnaie in Brussels, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Royal Opera House Muscat, Florida Opera, Nikikai Opera in Tokyo, as well as the Chorégies d’Orange, Avenches Festival, Festival Puccini Torre del Lago, Opera Festival in Santander, Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, and the Sferisterio Opera Festival in Macerata.
In 2010, Roberto Rizzi Brignoli made his acclaimed debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York with La Bohème. Recent highlights include Roger Vontobel’s new production of Il trovatore at Nationaltheater Mannheim, a new production of Giovanna d’Arco in Metz, and a semi-staged version of Verdi’s Messa da Requiem at Hamburg’s State Opera.
Furthermore, Rizzi Brignoli has been cultivating a close connection to Deutsche Oper Berlin for many years, where he led, amongst others, Don Carlo, Turandot, Nabucco, Andrea Chénier, as well as the new productions Il trovatore, L’elisir d’amore, and Rolando Villazón’s highly acclaimed staging of La Rondine.
Since January 2020, Roberto Rizzi Brignoli is the new Generalmusikdirektor (GMD) of Teatro Municipal de Santiago de Chile and the Santiago Philharmonic Orchestra. During his first years in the new position he will conduct a versatile repertoire including Andrea Chenier, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and Sleeping Beauty, Verdi’s Requiem, and a series of concerts with works by Weber, Schumann and others.
In addition to his operatic repertoire, Rizzi Brignoli is a sought-after concert conductor as well. His repertoire includes symphonic works from the classic, romantic and the modern era. During his intense symphonic activity he worked with such institutions as the Orchestra dell’Arena di Verona, Orchestra Sinfonica del Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Orchestra of Teatro Carlo Felice in Genova, Orchestra dei Pomeriggi Musicali in Milan, I Cameristi della Scala, Orchestra Toscanini of Parma, Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Orchestra of the Opéra de Lyon, Orchestre National de Lille, the Orchestre National de France, Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Göteborg Symfoniker, and the Limburg Symphonic Orchestra.
Roberto Rizzi Brignoli has recorded for Sony and Warner Classics. Furthermore, the productions of Adriana Lecouvreur performed at Teatro alla Scala, as well as La Rondine at Deutsche Oper Berlin are available on DVD.
