Winner of the 42nd Abbiati Prize as Best Conductor in 2022, Gianluca Capuano has been the director of the ensemble Les Musiciens du Prince of Monaco since 2019. Born in Milan, he graduated in organ, composition and conducting at the Conservatory of his city. He further explored aspects related to the performance of early music at the Scuola Civica in Milan. Alongside his musical studies, he pursued classical studies: he graduated with honors in theoretical philosophy from the University of Milan and in 2002 published the essay “I segni della voce infinita” (Jaca Book).
He has carried out an intense activity as conductor, organist and continuo player throughout Europe, the United States, Russia and Japan. He has collaborated with artists such as: Michael Chance, Emma Kirkby, Cecilia Bartoli, Max Emanuel Cencic, Philippe Jaroussky, Diego Fasolis, Lorenzo and Vittorio Ghielmi.
In 2006 he founded the vocal and instrumental group “Il canto di Orfeo”, with which he is devoted to the masterpieces of the European Baroque repertoire, in close collaboration with some of the leading specialists on period instruments. With the vocal ensemble he took part in Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine in Cremona and in the operas Cuore di cane by Raskatov and Die Soldaten by Zimmermann at Teatro alla Scala in Milan.
In past seasons he conducted Vinci’s Artaserse with Concerto Köln at the Cologne Opera, and was subsequently reinvited for Hasse’s Leucippo. He made his debut at the Semperoper in Dresden with Handel’s Orlando and later conducted Haydn’s Orlando Paladino in Winterthur with the orchestra La Scintilla.
In August 2016 he came to international prominence by stepping in at short notice to conduct Norma with Cecilia Bartoli for the opening of the Edinburgh Festival, later repeated in Paris (Théâtre des Champs-Élysées) and Baden-Baden. He also conducted the European tour of Cenerentola with Cecilia Bartoli. Other engagements include: Vivaldi’s Catone in Utica with Concerto Köln; Così fan tutte with OperaLombardia; Idomeneo at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino; La clemenza di Tito in Karlsruhe and L’incoronazione di Poppea in Nantes.
Gianluca Capuano made his Salzburg debut at the 2017 Whitsun Festival, conducting Les Musiciens du Prince in Ariodante and in a concert version of La donna del lago, continuing the following year with a recital of arias associated with the tenor Manuel García, performed by Javier Camarena. He returned to Salzburg for Alcina; with "Il canto di Orfeo" for Caldara’s La morte d'Abel; for Il Trionfo del tempo e del disinganno and Il Barbiere di Siviglia; and more recently for Monteverdi’s, Gluck’s and Haydn’s Orfei.
Other past engagements include: Cimarosa’s Il matrimonio segreto and Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno at the Cologne Opera; Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and L'Elisir d'amore in Hamburg; Ariodante, Il Turco in Italia, Cenerentola, Alcina and Clemenza di Tito in Monte Carlo with Les Musiciens du Prince and on tour; Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice and Alceste in Rome; Il matrimonio segreto in Amsterdam; Guillaume Tell at the Chorégies d'Orange; Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo; Mozart’s Requiem in Bari; L'elisir d'amore at Teatro Real in Madrid; La Cenerentola and Iphigénie en Tauride in Zurich; Cimarosa’s Il maestro di cappella paired with Wolf-Ferrari’s Il segreto di Susanna at Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa; Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater in Lucerne; Le Nozze di Figaro and Ariodante in Moscow; and Alcina in Florence.
In the concert field he has conducted the Orchestra of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna in a program featuring works by Schubert and Anton Eberl. His second CD for Decca, an album dedicated to the legendary Pauline Viardot, features the mezzo-soprano Varduhi Abrahamyan and Les Musiciens du Prince.
Recent engagements include: La Cenerentola in Zurich, Munich, Vienna and Florence; L'Italiana in Algeri in Zurich; Il Barbiere di Siviglia and L'Elisir d'amore in Monte Carlo; L'Orfeo in Monte Carlo; Giulio Cesare in Monte Carlo, Vienna and on tour in Luxembourg, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Cologne; Semele and Norma in Munich; Don Pasquale in Vienna; Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice at the Palau de les Arts in Valencia, Salzburg, Luxembourg, Brussels, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Essen, Cologne, Baden-Baden, Wiesbaden, Paris and Zurich; Bach’s Weihnachtsoratorium in Monte Carlo; La Clemenza di Tito in Salzburg and Monte Carlo; Das Rheingold in Monte Carlo; and the Mass in C minor KV. 427 in Salzburg.
Among the engagements of the 2025–26 season are: The Barber of Seville in Vienna, Lucerne and Martigny (concert version) with Les Musiciens du Prince; La Cenerentola at Teatro alla Scala in Milan; Die Entführung aus dem Serail at Teatro Regio in Turin; Giulio Cesare in Zurich and at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino; The Triumph of Time and Disillusion at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma; L'Elisir d'amore at the Wiener Staatsoper; the debut in Die Walküre at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo; Il Viaggio a Reims and The Return of Ulysses to His Homeland at the Salzburg Festival; and Orfeo ed Euridice by Gluck on tour in Barcelona, Madrid, Seville, Vienna, Budapest, Graz and Monte-Carlo with Les Musiciens du Prince.
March 2026