Nicola Luisotti

Biography

Principal Guest Conductor of Madrid’s Teatro Real, Maestro Luisotti served as Music Director of San Francisco Opera from 2009 to 2018, conducting over 40 operas and concerts since his Company debut in 2005. In 2018 he was awarded the San Francisco Opera Medal for artistic excellence. 

Among his distinguished San Francisco Opera credits, Luisotti conducted the Company’s world premiere commissioning project of Marco Tutino’s La Ciociara (Two Women) as well as Salome, Lohengrin, Don Carlo and the Mozart-Da Ponte trilogy. 

Recent season engagements include Manon Lescaut at San Francisco Opera, Don Carlo and Turandot at Teatro Real, La Forza del Destino at Opéra National de Paris, Aida, Rigoletto and La Traviata at the Metropolitan Opera, as well as Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at the Auditorium Nacional de Música in Madrid.

He has received critical acclaim from press and public alike for his performances at the Vienna State Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Genoa’s Teatro Carlo Felice, Venice’s La Fenice, Bologna’s Teatro Comunale, Turin’s Teatro Regio, Munich’s Bavarian State Opera, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Dresden, Hamburg, Valencia, Los Angeles Opera, Seattle Opera, Toronto’s Canadian Opera Company and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall. Maestro Luisotti was awarded the 39th Premio Puccini Award in conjunction with the historic 100th anniversary of La Fanciulla del West at the Metropolitan Opera, which he conducted there in 2010. 

Luisotti served as Music Director of Teatro San Carlo from 2012 through 2014. Aside from opera and concert performances in Naples, he also conducted a historic performance of the Verdi Requiem in San Francisco which included the orchestra and the chorus of both Teatro San Carlo and San Francisco Opera.

Further engagements in 2019/2020 include Il Trovatore at Teatro alla Scala, La Traviata at Teatro Real, La Forza del Destino at Chorégies d'Orange Festival. Concert highlights in the upcoming season include performances at the Symphoniker Hamburg, Atlanta Symphony, Orchestra del Teatro Massimo di Palermo, Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa and Orchestra Regio Torino.

On the concert stage, Luisotti has worked with the San Francisco Symphony, Filarmonica della Scala, Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, London Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Berlin Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Orchestra, Rome’s Santa Cecilia Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica of Madrid, Orchestra of Teatro Regio in Turin,Tokyo Symphony and NHK Orchestra.

Maestro Luisotti has also conducted several productions captured on DVD  including the Metropolitan Opera’s La Bohème and La Fanciulla del West, the Royal Opera House productions of Don Giovanni and Nabucco and San Francisco Opera’s Mefistofele.