About
Richard Farnes is one of the most sought after conductors of his generation, and is the winner of the 2017 Royal Philharmonic Society Conductor of the Year award. He was Music Director of Opera North from 2004-2016, for whom he has conducted many highly praised productions including La fanciulla del West, Death in Venice, Otello, La traviata,, Gloriana, The Turn of Screw, La boheme, Manon, La Rondine, Werther, Eugene Onegin, The Queen of Spades, Katya Kabanova, and From the House of the Dead. He has also made recordings with Opera North of both Duke Bluebeard’s Castle and Don Carlos for Chandos Records.
In 2011, Richard Farnes and Opera North started an ambitious project to perform Wagner’s “Ring” in concert, which was enthusiastically received by both public and the press alike. Complete Ring cycles took place throughout 2016 in Leeds, Salford, Nottingham, Gateshead and London. This project won the 2017 Royal Philharmonic Society Opera and Music Theatre award.
He returned to the Royal Opera, London, towards the end of 2016 to conduct performances of Verdi’s Il Trovatore, and he returned to the Glyndebourne Festival in summer 2017 to conduct Verdi’s La Traviata. The 2017-18 season sees him conduct the Adelaide Symphony and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestras, and make returns to Opera North for Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera, and Garsington Opera for Verdi’s Falstaff.