The Italian conductor Carlo Montanaro is a celebrated guest at the most renowned opera houses and concert halls around the world. He started out as a violinist and had the opportunity to perform under the baton of such famous conductors as Riccardo Muti, Lorin Maazel, and Zubin Mehta, who recognised his talent and recommended him for the Vienna Music Academy to study conducting. He made his debut at Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio, later he was a conductor at Teatro Communale for several seasons. In the beginning, he conducted concert series before turning to opera. Between 2011 and 2014, he was music director at Teatr Wielki in Warsaw.
The core of his repertoire is made up from the most popular pieces of the opera oeuvre by Mozart as well as Italian and French composers such as Rossini, Donizetti, Verdi, Puccini, Gounod, and Massenet. He is well-known around Europe – including La Scala (Milan), Semperoper Dresden, Opéra Bastille (Paris), and Deutsche Oper Berlin –, and he has also made appearances in the USA, Canada, Australia, and Japan. He made his Hungarian State Opera debut with La bohème in 2013. He has been a recurring guest since, and he has conducted several performances including Mefistofele (2015), Un ballo in maschera (2019), and Aida (2024).
