When I saw it, I understood that one day, I could become an opera conductor. But the first time I fell in love with an opera was La Bohème, when I was 21. The first time I attended an opera, it was Madama Butterfly, when I was 12. You began your career at age 10, playing the organ in your village church in Tuscany, learning to read music by watching the priest - and a year later you were conducting the church chorus. And Pacific Heights is so quiet, beautiful and elegant - just a perfect place for a musician to be inspired. Our apartment building in Pacific Heights was built in 1932, and I thought it was truly fate, since that was the year the Opera House opened. I fell in love with what the neighborhood first gave me - that view. Four years later, when I was asked to become music director, I was in paradise. Opera orchestra and chorus were just amazing. I immediately called Rita and said: “You will love this city!”Īnd it was one of the best musical experiences in my life. Opera had arranged for me in Pacific Heights, the windows provided a spectacular view of the bay and Alcatraz - a view I couldn’t have had in any other neighborhood. I decided to come here for two days my wife, Rita, remained in L.A. But I was so tired, I was close to canceling my engagement. I’d been invited to conduct La Forza del Destino, by Giuseppe Verdi, in San Francisco, and I had to start the rehearsals. in 2005 conducting Pagliacci, by Leoncavallo. I will never forget that important moment of my artistic life. You’ve worked in opera companies all over the world. He will open the fall season conducting Puccini’s beloved Turandot in early September and Verdi’s romantic La Traviata later that month.īut if not for the charms of the neighborhood, he might not be in San Francisco at all. Italian to his core, Luisotti, who’s been music director of the opera company since 2009, is particularly renowned for conducting the works of his most famous musical countrymen. M aestro - and neighborhood resident - Nicola Luisotti opens the San Francisco Opera’s summer season this month, conducting eight performances of Verdi’s heart-wrenching Rigoletto. Photograph of San Francisco Opera music director Nicola Luisotti by Cory Weaver
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