BIOGRAPHY



SPERANZA SCAPPUCCI

Conductor


Designated Principal Conductor starting in the 25/26 season at Covent Garden Royal Ballet and Opera House, Speranza Scappucci made history as the first Italian woman to conduct at Teatro alla Scala in Milan. With her house debuts at the Metropolitan Opera New York, at Lyric Opera Chicago, at State Opera in Berlin and at Opéra national de Paris she consolidated her position as one of the most interesting conductors of her generation on the international scene.

With Puccini’s MADAMA BUTTERLY, Speranza Scappucci opens her 24/25 season at Opéra national de Paris. Immediately after she will return to the Royal Opera House in London to conduct with LA BOHEME another opera from Puccini. Later in the season, she will return to the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto to conduct Tchaikovsky’s EUGEN ONEGIN and to the Bavarian State Opera in Munich for Verdi’s LA TRAVIATA. She will give her house debut at National Concert Hall Dublin conducting a Maurice Ravel concert to celebrate his 150th anniversary of his birth.

During the last seasons, Speranza conducted Donizetti’s DON PASQUALE at Opéra de Paris as well as LA FILLE DU REGIMENT at Chicago Lyric Opera, Verdi´s ATTILA at Royal Opera House Covent Garden London, RIGOLETTO & LA RONDINE at the MET in New York, I CAPULETI E I MONTECCHI at La Scala Milan and Opéra de Paris, CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA & GIANNI SCHICCHI at Opéra de Montecarlo, MACBETH at the Canadian Opera in Toronto, DIALOGUES DES CARMÉLITES, EUGEN ONEGIN and SIMON BOCCANEGRA at Royal Opéra de Wallonie in Liège, LE VILLI in Toulouse, L’ELISIR D’AMORE & LA TRAVIATA at Berlin State Opera, LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR at New National Theatre in Tokyo and Opernhaus in Zürich as well as Verdi’s REQUIEM at Arena di Verona.

From 2017 to 2022, Speranza Scappucci hold the position of Music Director at Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège, where she conducted MADAMA BUTTERLY, LA CENERENTOLA, LA SONNAMBULA, AIDA and I PURITANI. With IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA, she debuted at the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto and returned to Opera Zürich conducting LA BOHEME. Concerts brought her to Bordeaux, Liège, Budapest, Lyon and Paris. At Vienna State Opera, she conducted L’ELISIR D’AMORE, LA BOHEME and LA CENERENTOLA and at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées she led Donizetti’s MARIA STUARDA. She returned to Washington Opera (TOSCA) and gave her debut at Semperoper Dresden conducting LA BOHEME.

Speranza Scappucci also made a name for herself as a symphonic conductor: among the many distinguished orchestras she has conducted so far are the Los Angeles Philharmonics at Hollywood Bowl, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala in Milan, the Orchestra Arturo Toscanini, the Orchestra sinfonica nazionale della Rai, the Orchestra Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Vienna Symphonics, the Symphony Orchestra Luzern, the Orchestre national de Lyon, the Orchestre National du Capitole in Toulouse and the Orchestre National d'Ile de France.

Since 2022 Speranza Scappucci is co-presenter of the TV program “La gioia della musica” on the channel RAI TRE in the Italian national television. Inspired by “The Joy of Music” of Mo. Bernstein, Speranza Scappucci explains in many episodes – at the piano or in front ot the Orchestra sinfonica nazionale della Rai in Torino - the major operas and symphonic works of the classic music literature.

In November 2013, her first CD album was released on Warner Classics, Mozart arias with Latvian soprano Marina Rebeka and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and 2016 the CD album of the Albanian tenor Saimir Pirgu for Opus Arte with the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Her latest recording with Hungarian bassist Ödön Rácz and the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra was released in 2019 on Deutsche Grammophon. Speranza Scappucci received the honour of « Chevalier de l'Ordre des arts et des lettres » from the French Republic as well as the Premio Porto Venere Donna, the Premio Margherita Hack, the Premio Vittorio De Sica and the De Sanctis Europe Price from Italy.