Antonio Pappano

Sound

Antonio Pappano

Born 1956-12-30 · Epping, Essex, England, UK

Sir Antonio Pappano (born 30 December 1959) is an English-Italian conductor and pianist. In 1992, Pappano became music director of La Monnaie, the Belgian Royal Opera House, a post he held until 2002. In that year, he was named the music director of the Royal Opera House (ROH), Covent Garden. At Covent Garden, Pappano and Kasper Holten, the ROH Director of Opera, shared responsibility for production. His current ROH contract runs through to 2017, and was extended until 2023. Pappano was the youngest conductor to lead the orchestra of the ROH, accompanying both the Royal Opera and Royal Ballet. In 2015 he received a Gold Medal from the Royal Philharmonic Society

Acting credits

Ennio poster
8.3

A portrait of Ennio Morricone, the most popular and prolific film composer of the 20th century, the one most loved by the international public, a two-time Oscar winner and the author of over five hundred unforgettable scores.

Ennio

2022

Das Rheingold - Royal Opera House poster
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When a precious hoard of gold is stolen from the river Rhine, it unleashes a chain of destructive events, pitting gods and mortals against one another for generations. Wagner’s Ring cycle boasts some of the greatest music ever written for the opera stage. Join us as we embark on a spectacular journey into the world of myth, dream and memory, with the figure of Erda – Mother Earth herself – at its centre.

Das Rheingold - Royal Opera House

2023

Die Walküre - Royal Opera House poster
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On a stormy night, fate brings two strangers together, unleashing a love that has the power to destroy entire worlds. Meanwhile, in the realm of the gods, an epic battle erupts between the ruler Wotan and his rebellious daughter Brünnhilde.

Die Walküre - Royal Opera House

2025

Siegfried - Royal Ballet  & Opera House poster
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Raised by a scheming dwarf and unaware of his true family origins, a young man embarks on an epic journey.

Siegfried - Royal Ballet & Opera House

2026

The Alchemy of the Piano poster
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When the pianist Francesco Piemontesi hears an unreleased recording of the pianist and composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, it comes as a shock to him. This freedom of playing, these colors and nuances, this virtuosity, which is always presented with a smile, overwhelms him. He decides to explore what he believes he is hearing here: the alchemy of the piano.

The Alchemy of the Piano

2024

The Italian Character: The Story of a Great Italian Orchestra poster
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The Italian Character: a film within music and about music. The Italian character is the story of one of the most renowned orchestras in the world, enriched by archive material of the last thirty years about the great conductors who have been performing on the most famous rostrum in Rome.

The Italian Character: The Story of a Great Italian Orchestra

2013

No artwork available
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As presented in March 2005 in London and broadcasted on BBC2.

Die Walküre

2005

Pappano e la Messa di Gloria di Puccini poster
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Antonio Pappano conducts the Orchestra and Choir of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, accompanied by tenor Luciano Ganci and baritone Mattia Olivieri. The programme includes Giacomo Puccini’s *Messa di Gloria*, Amilcare Ponchielli’s *Elegia* and Victor de Sabata’s *Juventus*.

Pappano e la Messa di Gloria di Puccini

2022

Pappano e l'Accademia di Santa Cecilia: Rachmaninov-Sibelius poster
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From the Auditorium Parco della Musica – Sala Santa Cecilia, the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, conducted by Antonio Pappano, performs Rachmaninoff’s *The Isle of the Dead* and *Piano Concerto No. 1*, and Sibelius’s *Symphony No. 2*. Alexander Romanovsky is at the piano.

Pappano e l'Accademia di Santa Cecilia: Rachmaninov-Sibelius

2018

Pappano e l'Accademia di Santa Cecilia: Puccini-Strauss-Rachmaninoff poster
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The Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, conducted by Antonio Pappano and featuring soprano Dorothea Roschmann, performs works by Giacomo Puccini, Richard Strauss and Sergei Rachmaninoff.

Pappano e l'Accademia di Santa Cecilia: Puccini-Strauss-Rachmaninoff

2013

Tosca poster
6.9

Benoit Jacquot's acclaimed 2002 film of Puccini's opera stars Angela Gheorghiu in the title role, with Roberto Alagna, Ruggero Raimondi and the Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, under Antonio Pappano.

Tosca

2001

Verdi: Messa da Requiem poster
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No synopsis available yet.

Verdi: Messa da Requiem

2024

Royal Opera House: The Queen of Spades poster
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The dark world of Tchaikovsky’s penultimate operatic masterpiece Queen of Spades hinges on obsession, greed, and a secret in winning at cards… In 2005, the Opéra Bastille mounted a compelling production featuring Vladimir Galouzine as the mad lover Hermann, Hasmik Papian as the doomed Lisa, and Irina Bogatcheva as the mysterious Comtesse.

Royal Opera House: The Queen of Spades

2019

Concerto Pappano-Bollani poster
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The Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, conducted by Maestro Antonio Pappano, takes us on an evocative journey through time with music by Gabrieli, Vivaldi, Stravinsky, and Mozart's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 23 K488, featuring Stefano Bollani.

Concerto Pappano-Bollani

2020

Les Vêpres siciliennes poster
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The French have occupied Sicily, and Hélène is held hostage by Montfort, the French governor, who has had her brother executed. She turns to the partisan Jean Procida and the rebellious patriot Henri in her bid for vengeance. Les Vêpres siciliennes is one of Verdi’s lesser-known mature operas, but was vital to his development as a composer. It was created for the Paris Opéra in 1855, providing Verdi with an opportunity to embrace the elaborate style and traditions of French grand opera. First seen at the Royal Opera House in 2013, this staging of Verdi's rarely-performed opera Les Vêpres siciliennes – directed by Stefan Herheim and conducted by The Royal Opera’s Music Director, Verdi specialist Sir Antonio Pappano – went on to win the prestigious Olivier Award for Best New Opera Production.

Les Vêpres siciliennes

2013

Royal Opera House: Madama Butterfly poster
9.0

Cio-Cio-San, the young Japanese bride of dashing American officer Lieutenant Pinkerton, finds her romantic idyll shattered when he deserts her shortly after their marriage. She lives in hope that one day he will return. Three years later, Cio-Cio-San and her little son see Pinkerton’s ship in the harbour. She excitedly expects his visit – but Pinkerton and his American wife Kate have come only to take the boy away, to raise him in America. Cio-Cio-San bids her son farewell and then takes her own life.

Royal Opera House: Madama Butterfly

2017

Kaufmann's Otello at the Royal Opera House poster
7.0

On a June night in 2017, opera lovers thronged to the Royal Opera House in London to hear tenor Jonas Kaufmann, recently acclaimed by The Daily Telegraph as the world s greatest tenor, make his eagerly anticipated debut in the title role of Otello Verdi s greatest and most demanding role for tenor voice. As the New York Times wrote Mr. Kaufmann made his debut in the part, and he calmly, confidently sang it for the ages.

Kaufmann's Otello at the Royal Opera House

2017

Royal Opera House: The Marriage of Figaro poster
8.5

David McVicar's spellbinding production of LE NOZZE DI FIGARO is set in 1830s post-revolution France, where the inexorable unravelling of an old order has produced acute feelings of loss. In the relationship between Finley's suave, dashingly self-absorbed Count and Röschmann's passionately dignified Countess, which lies at the tragic heart of the opera, the sexy ease between a feisty Figaro (Erwin Schrott) and a sassy Susanna (Miah Persson) is starkly absent, the tenacious spark between Marcellina (Graciela Araya) and Bartolo (Jonathan Veira) suggesting what might be rekindled. The production is superbly complemented by the beauty of Paule Constable's lighting and Tanya McCallin's evocative sets. Antonio Pappano conducts (and accompanies the recitatives) with invigorating wit and emotional depth.

Royal Opera House: The Marriage of Figaro

2006

Royal Opera House: Andrea Chernier poster
10.0

“Kaufmann is performing the title role for the first time, and it’s hard to imagine him bettered. His striking looks make him very much the Romantic and romanticised outsider of Giordano’s vision. His voice, with its dark, liquid tone, soars through the music with refined ease and intensity: all those grand declarations of passion, whether political or erotic, hit home with terrific immediacy.” – The Guardian Presented in its Covent Garden premiere in January 2015, this staging – directed by David McVicar and conducted by the Royal Opera’s Music Director, Sir Antonio Pappano – shows a bloody tricolour daubed with the words “Even Plato banned poets from his Republic” – written by Robespierre on the death warrant of the historical Chénier, a poet and journalist sent to the guillotine in 1794 for criticising France’s post-revolutionary government.

Royal Opera House: Andrea Chernier

2015

Les Troyens poster
8.0

After the destruction of Troy, the Trojan warrior Énée sets out on a journey to found a new dynasty. He meets Didon, Queen of Carthage, and falls in love. But will Énée's love for Didon prove stronger than his sense of duty? LES TROYENS ('The Trojans') is a tour de force of music that ranges from fiery military marches to intense choruses, passionate soliloquies – such as those of the prophetess Cassandre – and the lyrical love duets of Didon and Énée. It is Hector Berlioz's largest work and he wrote the libretto himself, drawing upon his intimate knowledge of Virgil's Aeneid. To the composer's disappointment, LES TROYENS was only performed once in full during his lifetime and was often presented in shortened form during the 20th century. The Royal Opera's production provides a rare chance to see this epic work in its entirety. David McVicar's staging is on an enormous scale, assembling one of the largest casts ever seen at Covent Garden.

Les Troyens

2012

Pappano's Essential Tosca poster
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Antonio Pappano takes an in-depth look at one of the most famous and dramatic of all operas - Puccini's Tosca. This documentary goes behind the scenes of the recent production of Tosca by the Royal Opera House, conducted by Pappano and starring some of the hottest names on the opera stage today - Angela Gheorghiu, Bryn Terfel and Jonas Kaufmann. Pappano examines the drama and musical language of Tosca and explores Puccini's creative genius in producing one of the greatest of theatrical experiences.

Pappano's Essential Tosca

2012

Royal Opera House: Tosca poster
9.0

The star singers in this revival of the 2006 production were Angela Gheorghiu, Jonas Kaufmann and Bryn Terfel; the Royal Opera Chorus and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House were under the baton of Antonio Pappano, the Music Director of the Royal Opera House. The pageantry of church ritual, the darkness of a brooding study with its hidden torture chamber and the false optimism of the light of a Roman dawn - all throw into relief the love of the beautiful diva Tosca, the idealism of her lover Cavaradossi and the deadly, destructive obsession of the malevolent Chief of Police, Scarpia. Drama, passion and fabulous music.

Royal Opera House: Tosca

2011

Don Carlo - ROH poster
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Rolando Villazón Triumphantly Returns To The Stage As Don Carlo In The 2007/2008 Royal Opera House'S Producton Of Don Carlo. National Theatre director Nicholas Hytner's new staging of Verdi's grandest-- and arguably greatest -- opera, Don Carlo, was the highlight of the 2007/2008 Royal Opera House season. This new production marked Rolando Villazón's much anticipated and triumphant return. Set amidst the political, religious and sexual intrigue of the 16th century Spanish court, this epic work tells the tragic story of Don Carlo, a virtuous young prince who is pitted against the powers of a dominant, corrupt society. First staged at The Royal Opera House in 1886, this new production is the first new version of the 5-Act complete opera to be staged at Covent Garden in 50 years. With sets and costumes by Bob Crowley, direction by Nicholas Hytner, and an enviable cast, this production of Don Carlo is worthy of the greatness of Verdi's original, masterful work.

Don Carlo - ROH

2008

MacBeth poster
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Macbeth, the Thane of Glamis, receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders his king and takes the throne for himself.

MacBeth

2011

Behind the camera