Actor · Director

4 series in the catalog

Sir Antonio Pappano (born 30 December 1959) is an English-Italian conductor and pianist. Between 2002 and 2024, he was the longest-serving music director of the Royal Opera House. Since 2024, he has served as chief conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra.

Early life

Pappano was born in Epping, Essex. Pappano's family had relocated to England from Castelfranco in Miscano near Benevento, Italy, in 1958, and at the time of his birth his parents worked in the restaurant business. His father, Pasquale Pappano, was by vocation a singing teacher.

When Pappano was 13 years old, he moved with his family to Connecticut. After musical training in piano, composition, and conducting, he became a rehearsal accompanist at the New York City Opera at the age of 21.

Career

Pappano attracted the attention of fellow pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim, and became his assistant at the Bayreuth Festival. He worked in Barcelona and Frankfurt, and served as an assistant to Michael Gielen.

Pappano's first conducting appearance at Den Norske Opera was in 1987, and he became music director there in 1990. From 1992 to 2002, Pappano served as music director of Royal Theatre of La Monnaie Brussels, Belgium. He was principal guest conductor of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra from 1997 to 1999. In 2005, Pappano became music director of the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. He is scheduled to stand down from the Santa Cecilia post in 2023.

In 2002, Pappano was named the music director of the Royal Opera House (ROH) in Covent Garden, London. Pappano was the youngest conductor at the orchestra of the ROH, performing for the Royal Opera and Royal Ballet. At Covent Garden, Pappano and Kasper Holten, the ROH Director of Opera, shared responsibility for production. The ROH contract renewed Pappano's contract several times, to 2017, and then to 2023. BBC Radio broadcast in 2017 an hour-long documentary of Pappano's preparation of a new production of La bohème at the Royal Opera House. In March 2021, the ROH announced the latest extension of Pappano's contract through the 2023–2024 season, and the scheduled conclusion of Pappano's tenure at the close of the 2023–2024 season. After stepping down in June 2024, he was appointed in May 2025 as the first Conductor Laureate of the Royal Opera, a title that recognises his legacy as the longest serving music director of the Royal Opera.

Pappano had first guest-conducted the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) in 1996. He has returned as guest conductor to the LSO on over 70 occasions, and made several recordings with the LSO. In March 2021, the LSO announced the appointment of Pappano as its next chief conductor, effective in September 2024. He held the title of chief conductor-designate in the orchestra's 2023–2024 London season.

In 2023 he directed the orchestra at the coronation of Charles III and Camilla.

Awards and honours

Pappano's awards and honours include Gramophone's ‘Artist of the Year’ (2000), the 2003 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera, the 2004 Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award, and the Académie du Disque Lyrique's Bruno Walter prize. On 17 January 2013 he received the Incorporated Society of Musicians' Distinguished Musician Award. He was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society in 2015.

Pappano was knighted in the 2012 New Year Honours for services to music. In 2012, he was made a Cavaliere di Gran Croce of the Republic of Italy. He was appointed Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) in the 2024 New Year Honours for services at the coronation.

At the 2024 Laurence Olivier Awards, Pappano won the Outstanding Achievement in Opera award, for his role as Music Director at the Royal Opera House.

Personal life

Pappano is married to Pamela Bullock, an American vocal coach and they live in London.

Recordings

Pappano records regularly for Warner Classics and is also represented on other labels.

His major recordings include:

The Age of Puccini: with Jonas Kaufmann, tenor

Béla Bartók: Violin Concerto No. 1, with Janine Jansen, violin, with Luigi Piovano, cello and Antonio Pappano, piano

Arnold Bax: Tintagel

Ludwig van Beethoven: Fidelio

Ludwig van Beethoven: Lieder & Folk Songs, with Ian Bostridge, tenor, Vilde Frang, violin, Nicolas Altstaedt, cello and Antonio Pappano, piano

Vincenzo Bellini: Norma

Alban Berg: Lulu

Hector Berlioz: Requiem, with Javier Camarena, tenor

Hector Berlioz: Les Troyens

Leonard Bernstein: The 3 Symphonies (No. 1; No. 2; No. 3) & Prelude, Fugue and Riffs, with Marie-Nicole Lemieux, contralto, Beatrice Rana, piano and Alessandro Carbonare, clarinet

Georges Bizet: Carmen

Harrison Birtwistle: The Minotaur

Philippe Boesmans: Wintermärchen

Johannes Brahms: Violin Concerto, with Janine Jansen, violin

Johannes Brahms: Cello Sonata No. 1 & Cello Sonata No. 2, with Luigi Piovano, cello and Antonio Pappano, piano

Benjamin Britten: Songs, with Ian Bostridge, tenor, Xuefei Yang, guitar and Antonio Pappano, piano

Benjamin Britten: War Requiem, with Anna Netrebko, soprano, Ian Bostridge, tenor & Thomas Hampson, baritone

Susan Chilcott at La Monnaie: works by Britten, Verdi, Richard Strauss & Boesmans, with Susan Chilcott, soprano and other singers

Aaron Copland: Symphony No. 3

Gaetano Donizetti: extracts from Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda & Roberto Devereux, with Diana Damrau, soprano & other soloists

Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 4

Antonín Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 & Cello Concerto,

Edward Elgar: Cello Concerto, with Gautier Capuçon, cello

Edward Elgar: Symphony No. 1 & In the South (Alassio)

Peter Eötvös: Halleluja - Oratorium balbulum & Alle vittime senza nome, with Topi Lehtipuu, tenor, Iris Vermillion, mezzo-soprano and Matthias Brandt, actor

Umberto Giordano: Andrea Chénier

Han-Na Chang - Romance: works by Glazunov, Saint-Saëns, Dvořák, Tchaikovsky, Lalo & Casals

Insieme - Opera Duets: works by Ponchielli & Giuseppe Verdi, with Jonas Kaufmann, tenor and Ludovic Tézier, baritone

Joyce & Tony - Live at Wigmore Hall: works by Haydn, Rossini, Santoliquido, Curtis, Foster, Kern, Nelson, Dougherty, Moross, Bolcom, Villa-Lobos, Rodgers, Berlin, Arlen & Lowry, with Joyce DiDonato, soprano and Antonio Pappano, piano

Jonas Kaufmann: Nessun Dorma - The Puccini Album, with Jonas Kaufmann, tenor and Kristine Opolais, soprano

Edouard Lalo: Symphonie espagnole, with Maxim Vengerov, violin

Ruggero Leoncavallo: Pagliacci

Anatoly Liadov: The Enchanted Lake

Liturgic Pappano: works by Rossini, Verdi & Britten

Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 1

Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 6

Giuseppe Martucci: Romance for cello and piano, No 1 & Romance for cello and piano, No 2, with Luigi Piovano, cello and Antonio Pappano, piano

Pietro Mascagni: Cavalleria rusticana

Jules Massenet: Manon, Werther

Peter Maxwell Davies: Symphony No. 10, with Markus Butter, baritone

Felix Mendelssohn: Elijah

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 31

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Concert Arias, with Rolando Villazón, tenor

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Complete Violin Sonatas, with Dmitri Sitkovetsky, violin and Antonio Pappano, piano

Modest Mussorgsky: Night on Bald Mountain

Modest Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov

Operatic Pappano: works by Verdi, Puccini, Rossini & Wagner

Andrzej Panufnik: Symphony No. 10

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi: Stabat Mater & other works, with Anna Netrebko, soprano and Marianna Pizzolato, contralto

Pianistic Pappano: works by Arlen, Schubert, Rossini, Berlin, Shostakovich, Finzi, Quilter, Saint-Saëns, Beethoven, Mahler, Prokofiev, Britten & Wolf, with Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano, Ian Bostridge, tenor, Han-na Chang, cello and Martha Argerich, piano

Sergei Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 2, with Beatrice Rana, piano

Sergei Prokofiev: Sinfonia Concertante & Cello Sonata, with Han-na Chang, cello and Antonio Pappano, conductor and piano

Giacomo Puccini: Il trittico, La bohème, La rondine, Tosca, Madama…