Biography

Renowned as an expert interpreter and champion of bel canto opera and a specialist in French repertoire and early Verdi, Italian conductor Enrique Mazzola is in demand worldwide as both an operatic and symphonic conductor. He is Music Director at Lyric Opera of Chicago from the 2021/22 season, Principal Guest Conductor at Deutsche Oper Berlin from the 2018/19 season, and served as Artistic & Music Director of the Orchestre National d’Île de France from 2012/13 to 2018/19. In October 2018 he was made a Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres reflecting his significant contribution to musical life in France.

Plans for the 2019/20 season include return visits to the Lyric Opera of Chicago (Luisa Miller), Opernhaus Zurich (Don Pasquale, new production), Wiener Symphoniker for concerts at the Musikverein and Bregenzer Festspiele, Deutsche Oper Berlin (Le Prophete and Dinorah), Orchestre Symphonique de Quebec, Glyndebourne Festival Opera (L’elisir d’amore), Taiwan Philharmonic and NFM Wroclaw, and his debut with Staatsphilharmonie Nurnberg. Plans thereafter include returns to London Philharmonic in London and on tour.

Recent seasons include notable debuts with Salzburg Festspiele (Orphée aux Enfers), Wiener Staatsoper (Don Pasquale), Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Oslo Philharmonic, Royal Northern Sinfonia, New Japan Philharmonic, Taipei Symphony, Brussels Philharmonic and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Return engagements have included Metropolitan Opera (La fille du régiment), Opernhaus Zurich (Turco in Italia, Maria Stuarda, Il barbiere di Siviglia, I puritani), Bregenzer Festspiele (Rigoletto and previously Rossini’s Mosè in Egitto), Scottish Chamber Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Deutsche Oper Berlin (most recently to conduct their new production of Les Contes d’Hoffmann), Norske Opera (Don Giovanni), Lyric Opera of Chicago (I Puritani), Wiener Symphoniker, Orchestre Symphonique de Quebec, Sao Paulo State Symphony, and Glyndebourne Festival Opera (Il Barbiere di Siviglia). His final season with Orchestre National d’Île de France included recordings, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with Cédric Tiberghien and works by Respighi, of whose work he is an acclaimed interpreter.

Highlights of previous seasons with ONDIF included a concert version of Rossini’s La Cenerentola, recordings and concerts in Paris at the La Seine Musicale and their sold-out Philharmonie de Paris series.

Past opera has also included the Rossini Opera Festival (La gazzetta), Theatre des Champs-Elysées (Tancredi, Don Pasquale, La scala di seta, L’occasione fa il ladro, Il signor Bruschino), Den Norske Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin (Dinorahin concert, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Le Vaisseau fantome, Falstaff, Vasco da Gama) and the Bolshoi Theatre (La sonnambula). Glyndebourne Festival Opera has included performances of Don Pasquale, Poliuto, L’elisir d’amore and Il Barbiere di Siviglia and with Glyndebourne On Tour he has conducted La Cenerentola and a new production of L’elisir d’amore. Opera credits also include Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (L’italiana in Algeri), New National Theatre Tokyo (Don Giovanni), Opera du Rhin (Macbeth,La Cenerentola), Teatro alla Scala (Don Pasquale). He also regularly devotes time to working with young musicians, including from the Accademia Teatro alla Scala, Académie de l’Opéra national de Paris, Opéra Studio de l’Opéra national du Rhin, Accademia del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Codarts of Rotterdam and has given conducting masterclasses with the students of the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique de Paris and Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Lyon.

Major European festivals have included Falstaff at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Festival de Radio France et Montpellier, Enescu Festival and Haydn Festival with Orchestre National d’Île de France, Bregenzer Festspiele, Salzburg Festspiele, BBC Proms in 2016 with the Glyndebourne new production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia, München Opernfestspiele, Rossini Opera Festival, Biennale of Venice, Wexford Opera Festival, Festival de Granada and Les Chorégies d’Orange. Between 1999 and 2003 he was the Artistic and Music Director of the Cantiere Internazionale d’Arte in Montepulciano, where he conducted many symphonic concerts and new operatic productions with the Royal Northern College of Music Symphony Orchestra.

An accomplished interpreter of contemporary music, he has commissioned and conducted several premieres with ONDIF. He conducted the world premiere of Colla’s Il processo at La Scala, Il re nudo by Luca Lombardi at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Medusa by Arnaldo de Felice at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Isabella by Azio Corghi at the Rossini Opera Festival, and many other premieres with major European orchestras.

September 2019

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