About
Zanetti is an electrifying and energetic conductor, who also understands how to charm with the most evocative lyricism.
- Codelario
Massimo Zanetti maintains a high-profile international career in the world’s leading opera houses and concert halls.
Massimo Zanetti has been named Music Director of the Gyeonggi Philharmonic beginning with the 2018/2019 Season. The Gyeonggi Philharmonic, one of the major symphonic orchestras in South Korea, founded in 1997, is quickly achieving a full international recognition through prestiogious cooperations with guest conductors like Riccardo Muti, Jaap van Zweden, Daniele Gatti, Pinchas Zukerman and Nicolaj Znaider.
Zanetti’s 17/18 season sees him return to the Opèra Royale de Wallonie/Liège with a new production of Normaand he is taking part in the first season of the renewed Staatsoper Berlin – Unter den Linden with La Traviata. He will cooperate with the Brucknerorchester Linz, the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and the orchestra of the Komische Oper Berlin with Mischa Maisky, among others. He will also conduct a tour with Sonya Yoncheva in Montpellier, Baden Baden and Paris at Thèatre des Champs-Elysèes.
Recent season highlights included his debut with the Russian National Orchestra at Moscow’s celebrated Rostropovich Festival,at Beijing’s NCPA with the production of Don Pasquale, his return to Teatro alla Scala di Milano conducting CarmenandIl barbiere di Siviglia, to Semperoper Dresden to conduct Il barbiere di Siviglia and La Bohème, to the Bavarian State Opera in Munich with Verdi’s Macbeth, to the Parma Verdi Festival with Il Trovatore and to Staatsoper Berlin with Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Don Carlo. Besides highly-acclaimed visits to Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu with Verdi’s I Due Foscari and Simon Boccanegra, both featuring Placido Domingo and Leo Nucci sharing the title role, Zanetti conducted at the ABAO Bilbao the original French version of Don Carlos, Tosca and Un ballo in Mascheraat the San Diego Opera, in addition to performances of Verdi’s Requiem with the San Diego Symphony, and made his debut at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires with Verdi’s Otello.
Two highly acclaimed concert performances of Simon Boccanegra with the Wiener Symphoniker and Thomas Hampson in the title role at the Vienna Konzerthaus culminated in a live CD recording for Decca, and he continues to work in concert with significant singers of our time, most recently collaborating with Anna Netrebko at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris and at Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona.
As a guest conductor on the operatic stage, he has appeared with houses world-wide including Teatro alla Scala di Milano, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Royal Opera House (Covent Garden), Opéra de Paris (Bastille), Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Teatro Regio di Torino, San Francisco Opera, San Diego Opera, Royal Swedish Opera, Opera Australia at the Sydney Opera House, Gran Teatre del Liceu (Barcelona), Teatro Real de Madrid, ABAO Bilbao, and the NCPA Beijing, among many others. He held the position of Music Director of the Flemish Opera from 1999–2002, leading highly-acclaimed productions of a wide range of titles including Salome and Pelléas et Melisande, in addition to numerous symphonic concerts as part of the house’s orchestral season.
Over the last ten years, Zanetti has worked regularly at the Semperoper Dresden and has conducted new productions including Otello, Carmen, Le nozze di Figaro and Norma as well as several symphonic concerts with the Staatskapelle Dresden. He enjoys a close relationship with the Staatskapelle Berlin and is a regular guest also at Berlin’s Staatsoper. Following his debut with Normain 2002, productions have included L’italiana in Algeri, Carmen, La Bohème, L’elisir d’amore, La Traviata, Don Carlo and Don Giovanni. After his debut in 2008 he has maintained a close collaboration with the Zürich Opera, leading new productions of Luisa Miller and revivals of La fanciulla del West, Anna Bolena, Turandot, Otello and La Bohème. In 2007 he made his Bayerische Staatsoper debut with a new production of Luisa Miller and has returned for numerous revivals. Zanetti has also appeared at Teatro Regio di Parma’s prestigious Verdi Festival with Rigoletto (2008), Nabucco (2009), I Vespri Siciliani(2010) and Un ballo in maschera (2013), as well as Puccini’s Tosca.
As a symphonic conductor, Massimo Zanetti has worked regularly with the Czech Philharmonic, the Weimar Staatskapelle and the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, in addition to leading the Bamberger Symphoniker, Stuttgart Radio Symphony and NDR Symphony Orchestra Hamburg, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Finnish and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestras and the New Zealand Symphony. In Asia, he developed a close relationship with the NHK Symphony Tokyo, as well as with the China Philharmonic and Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra. He has also worked with the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan and the Nagoya Symphony Orchestra. In the UK, Zanetti worked with the City of Birmingham Symphony and the Hallé Orchestra including both concerts at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall and a UK tour.
Massimo Zanetti’s recordings include the Verdi Album with Sonya Yoncheva (Sony Classical, 2018), a Decca release of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra (2013), as well as DVD releases by C Major within the ‘Tutto Verdi’ project of Rigoletto (2008) and I Vespri Siciliani (2010) from the Teatro Regio di Parma, and a CD recording of Flavio Testi’s Saül (Naïve, 2004).
Massimo Zanetti is represented worldwide by IMG Artists.