Winner of the 42nd Abbiati Prize as Best Conductor in 2022, Gianluca
Capuano has been principal conductor of Les Musiciens du Prince in Monaco
since 2019. He was born in Milan, where he graduated in organ,
composition, and conducting from the local Conservatory. He deepened his
knowledge of early music performance at the Civica Scuola di Musica in
Milan. Alongside his musical studies, he pursued classical studies,
graduating with honors in theoretical philosophy from the University of
Milan and publishing the essay “I segni della voce infinita” (Jaca
Book, 2002).
He has pursued an intense career as conductor, organist, and continuo
player across 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 ensemble “Il canto di
Orfeo,” with which he performs masterpieces of European Baroque music in
close collaboration with leading specialists on period instruments. With
the ensemble he took part in Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine
in Cremona and in Raskatov’s Cuore di cane and Zimmermann’s Die
Soldaten at Teatro alla Scala in Milan.
In recent seasons he conducted Vinci’s Artaserse with Concerto
Köln at the Cologne Opera, and was 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
La Scintilla orchestra.
In August 2016 he rose to international attention stepping in last minute
to conduct Norma with Cecilia Bartoli for the opening of the
Edinburgh Festival, a production later performed in Paris (Théâtre des
Champs Elysées) and Baden-Baden. He also conducted the European tour of La
Cenerentola with Cecilia Bartoli. Other engagements included:
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.
Capuano made his Salzburg debut at the 2017 Whitsun Festival conducting
Les Musiciens du Prince in Ariodante and a concert version of La
donna del lago. He returned the following year with a recital of
arias around tenor Manuel García interpreted by Javier Camarena. He later
returned for Alcina; with “Il canto di Orfeo” for Caldara’s
La morte d’Abel; Handel’s Il Trionfo del tempo e del
disinganno and Il Barbiere di Siviglia; and more recently
for the Orfei by Monteverdi, Gluck, and Haydn.
Other past engagements include: Cimarosa’s Il matrimonio segreto
and Handel’s Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno in Cologne;
Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and L’Elisir d’amore in
Hamburg; Ariodante, Il Turco in Italia, Cenerentola, Alcina, and La
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
Chorégies d’Orange; Il Barbiere di Siviglia at 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 concert, he conducted the Orchestra of Teatro Comunale di Bologna in a
program of works by Schubert and Anton Eberl. His second album for Decca,
dedicated to the legendary Pauline Viardot, features mezzo-soprano Varduhi
Abrahamyan and Les Musiciens du Prince.
More recently, he conducted: 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 and on tour to 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 Mozart’s Mass in C minor KV. 427 in Salzburg.
Engagements for the 2025–26 season include: Il Barbiere di Siviglia
in Vienna and in 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 di Torino; Giulio
Cesare in Zurich and at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino; Il
trionfo del tempo e del disinganno at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma; L'Elisir
d'amore at the Wiener Staatsoper; and Gluck’s Orfeo ed
Euridice on tour with Les Musiciens du Prince.
August 2025