Francesco Angelico has been Music Director of the Hessisches
Staatstheater Kassel since the 2017/18 season and in November 2019
extended his tenure until 2025.
After completing his cello studies in 2001 at the Conservatoire of
Modena, Francesco Angelico studied conducting under Giorgio Bernasconi at
the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano. He was also
Bernasconi's assistant in a series of contemporary music concerts
presented by the Swiss public broadcaster in Lugano. This experience led
him to reserve a special place for contemporary music in his symphonic
repertoire. In 2011, Francesco Angelico received the Deutscher
Dirigentenpreis (German Conducting Prize).
From 2013 to 2017, Francesco Angelico was Principal Conductor of the
Tiroler Symphonieorchester-Innsbruck and, from 2015 to 2017, of the
Tiroler Landestheater in Innsbruck, where he conducted such titles as Maria
Stuarda, La forza del destino, Tiefland, Adriana Lecouvreur, Pique Dame,
Fidelio, The Makropoulos Case, Tannhäuser, Rusalka, Un ballo in maschera
and Capriccio. In 2016 he received the Österreichischer
Musiktheaterpreis (Austrian Music Theatre Prize) for his interpretation of
Adriana Lecouvreur.
At the Kassel Staatstheater, where he is currently music director, he has
conducted with great success such titles as Andrea Chénier, La Bohème,
Jenůfa, I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Falstaff, Tosca, Wozzeck,
Schumann's Manfred, the world premiere of Leuscher's Einbruch
mehrerer Dunkelheiten and Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen
tetralogy, directed by Markus Dietz, which ended with Götterdämmerung
in March 2020 and was then revived in 2022/23, a season in which he also
conducted Pique Dame, La forza del destino and several
symphonic concerts.
As a guest conductor, Francesco Angelico regularly conducts at the
world's leading opera houses: Bayerische Staatsoper Munich (Henze's Elegy
for Young Lovers, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Cenerentola and L'Elisir
d'amore); Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse (Boito's Mefistofele);
Cologne Opera (La Bohème); Staatsoper Stuttgart (Don Pasquale);
New National Theater Tokyo (Il Barbiere di Siviglia); Göteborg
Opera (new production of Rigoletto); Graz Opera (Madama
Butterfly); Riga Opera Festival (Simon Boccanegra).
His recent and future engagements include: Ciceri's L'ultimo sogno
(based on Verdi's La Traviata), Rihm's Die Hamletmaschine,
Verdi's Otello, Káťa Kabanová, Simon Boccanegra
and several symphonic concerts (including Mahler's Symphony No. 2)
in Kassel; Larcher's Das Jagdgewehr at the Bayerische Staatsoper
in Munich; a tour with the National Youth Orchestra of Germany and
violinist Christian Tetzlaff; concerts in Montpellier (Opéra Orchestre
National Montpellier), Lugano, Nuremberg (Staatsphilharmonie Nürnberg),
Chemnitz (Robert-Schumann-Philharmonie), Padua (Orchestra di Padova e del
Veneto), Bologna (Orchestra del Teatro Comunale), Würzburg
(Philharmonisches Orchester Würzburg) and Tokyo (Beethoven's Symphony
No. 9 with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra).
February 2024