Antonio Pappano was born in London and lived there until he was 13, when his Italian-born parents migrated to the United States and settled in Bridgeport, Conn. His father was a voice coach.

Antonio Pappano was 27 when he conducted his first opera, at the Norske Opera in Oslo. Five years later, in 1992, he was named music director of Belgium's main opera house, the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. Now, in a new career leap, at only 42, he has just taken up the high-profile, high-risk post of music director at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.
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A NEW LEADER AT COVENT GARDEN, UNKNOWN BUT UNDAUNTED 

The New York Times
By Alan Riding
Monday, October 14, 2002  

LONDON, Oct. 13 —Antonio Pappano was 27 when he conducted his first opera, at the Norske Opera in Oslo. Five years later, in 1992, he was named music director of Belgium's main opera house, the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. Now, in a new career leap, he has just taken up the high-profile, high-risk post of music director at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.
 
Only 42, he is succeeding Bernard Haitink (31 years his senior) without a London reputation to shield him. But in a way he is starting afresh.

His 10 years at the Monnaie were immensely successful. After his farewell concert in late June he was showered with red roses, while the orchestra thanked him with presents and a rousing excerpt from "Carmen." "The public gave him an ovation such as has rarely been heard or seen in Brussels," Stephan Moens reported in De Morgen, the Brussels daily. "After the grand finale of this great era, I too could not prevent myself from shedding a tear." 

Yet, as one Spanish music critic noted, "if the Belgians know what they are losing, the English have only a tiny idea of what they are gaining."

On Sept. 6, when Mr. Pappano opened the Royal Opera House's new season with Strauss's "Ariadne auf Naxos," this stocky, mop-haired American conductor was unknown to most London operagoers and critics. Only once before had he stood at Covent Garden's podium, and that was 12 years earlier in a forgettable production of "La Bohème." 

Three hours later Mr. Pappano had passed his first test: the Strauss production was acclaimed by public and critics alike. "Antonio Pappano made the clearest possible statement that he intends to put Covent Garden at the pinnacle of international opera," wrote Andrew Clark, opera critic of The Financial Times. "It felt not so much like the start of a new season, more the dawn of a glorious era." Other London critics were equally full of praise.

True, with a five-year contract ahead of him, including four more productions this season, Mr. Pappano's voyage through the troubled waters of London's opera world has only just begun.

"Something as big as this will always be seen as a new beginning," he said in his office between rehearsals for "Wozzek," which opens on Tuesday. "Can he do it? Can he not do it? We have had a very very good start. But you know, I'm not thinking, `I have made it.' That's rubbish."

In a way, Covent Garden was waiting for him. For 15 years as music director, Mr. Haitink kept the house orchestra in fine shape, but this shy and modest Dutchman is more musician than natural leader. And after the labor strife and management scandals that accompanied Covent Garden's $360 million reconstruction in the late 1990's, the opera house has been crying out for new leadership.

(Covent Garden's internal problems were again in the news on Sept. 25 when Ross Stretton was forced to resign after just 18 months as director of the Royal Ballet, which also has its home in the Royal Opera House. With the company's assistant director temporarily in charge, the search is now on for a new director.)

Mr. Pappano sees his role, then, to be more than conductor. "There's an understanding that I have artistic say," he said. "I was hired really to take care of the house and to care for different corners of the house: the box office, to know what's going on in the rest of the house, the orchestra, the other performers, the other singers, the other conductors."

The orchestra, at least, had already met him. He worked with it on three recent occasions while recording two CD's of Wagner extracts with Plácido Domingo and the soundtrack of a screen version of "Tosca," with Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu. "That helped me tremendously," he said. "Can you imagine me coming in on my first day and saying: `Hello, I'm Antonio Pappano. I'm your new boss."'

It may help that Mr. Pappano can claim to be British. Although he is American and his accent somewhat mid-Atlantic, he was born in London and lived here until he was 13, when his Italian-born parents migrated to the United States and settled in Bridgeport, Conn. In any event, he recalled a tad sheepishly, having read the autobiography of Georg Solti, Covent Garden's music director in the 1960's, "I knew deep down that one day I would get this job."

More important, Mr. Pappano is known as a singers' conductor, unsurprisingly perhaps since his father was a voice coach, and Mr. Pappano himself began his musical career as an accompanist at the New York City Opera. He then moved to Europe and was répétiteur and assistant conductor to Daniel Barenboim at Bayreuth for six seasons before becoming music director at the Norske Opera in 1990. In Brussels he conducted no fewer than 31 operas.

"I know how to work with singers because I have had a lot of practice," he said. "And I adore them. I am so impressed by what they do. Can you imagine? Hit by lights, can't see the conductor, heavy clothes, expected to be on time and sing in tune, it's amazing. I work singers very hard, I push them, but I have a tremendous admiration for them.

"The affection is apparently reciprocated. "He's a breath of fresh air," said Bryn Terfel, the Welsh bass-baritone who will sing the lead role in "Falstaff" here in February, with Mr. Pappano conducting. "He'll call me every couple of weeks just to see how I am. He's great.

"Being very present at Covent Garden is also part of Mr. Pappano's strategy. "I think the house feels a new energy because I am always here and going to rehearsals and sort of going at 100 miles per hour all the time," he said. "And this opera house has needed that kind of investment." At Mr. Pappano's own suggestion, this investment includes a commitment to spend seven months a year here.

One of his first tasks is simply to become accustomed to working in a 2,200-seat theater, twice the size of the Monnaie. "It will take two or three shows to know how the acoustics work in this house," he said. "I have to get used to how the orchestra sounds to my ears and then adjust or impose accordingly." He is already learning to work with five weeks of rehearsal time for a new production, against the six weeks common in the Monnaie.

He is mulling the possibility of creating an ensemble of permanent soloists, as is the practice in many German and Austrian opera houses. "Is it worth it, or is it better just to have a hidden ensemble, people who regularly come back but are not officially part of an ensemble? I don't know yet. But I'd love a situation where a star singer would like to be in London, say, for four months a year and can commit to two productions a season.

"Programming of each season is coordinated with Elaine Padmore, director of opera, and Peter Katona, director of casting. "My wish is that each season be as varied and contrasted as possible for the general public," Mr. Pappano explained, "but I don't think we'll be following a particular line or theme." 

Mr. Pappano, who laments not conducting more Mozart at the Monnaie, has decided to open the 2003-4 season with "Don Giovanni." He will conduct Wagner's "Ring" cycle, directed by Keith Warner, between 2004 and 2006.

Because opera schedules and casts are decided years in advance, the current season was partly in place when Mr. Pappano was named music director here in 1999. But along with the "Falstaff" revival, he is conducting new productions of "Madama Butterfly" and "Pagliacci" as well as of "Ariadne auf Naxos" and "Wozzek." It was also his decision to open the season with "Ariadne," although the choice was somewhat fortuitous.

"I had to find a piece with no chorus because the chorus returns here three weeks after rehearsals begin," he explained. "I looked at works with no chorus and thought, `Ariadne, it's the one I love most.' It's also perfect for this house. It's about how opera is done, about backstage, about sponsors, about getting money, about people who give money and whether they can tell you what to do. What better piece for Covent Garden where all those issues are relevant?

"The handsome production, directed by Christof Loy and designed by Herbert Murauer, brought an excellent cast that included Royal Opera House veterans like Thomas Allen (the Music Master) and newer faces like Petra Lang (Ariadne), Robert Brubaker (Bacchus) and Sophie Koch (the Composer). Marlis Petersen, a young German soprano who stepped in late in the day for Natalie Dessay, made an eye-catching Covent Garden debut as a sexy and mischievous Zerbinetta.

More than anyone, though, it was Mr. Pappano who had good reason to savor the applause when he joined singers for a bow after each performance.

"I learned opera the old-fashioned way," he later recalled. "I have done every job from carrying books to playing rehearsals, to coaching singers, to conducting the orchestra. I know the process of putting together an opera. This place, that's all it needs. Somebody who is organic with it." 

A New Leader at Covent Garden, Unknown but Undaunted 
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/14/arts/music/14PAPP.html?todaysheadlines