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Photo courtesy of the Artosphere Festival 2024
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“His (Henze’s) writing for a 23-piece instrumental ensemble, gorgeously colored and pulsating with ritualistic percussion, suits the milieu and the vocal complement; Corrado Rovaris, the company’s music director, elicited a fine account from his players.”

The New York Times

“The company’s music director, Corrado Rovaris, conducted the orchestra with seeming mastery over the details of this difficult score.”

Associated Press

Now in his 20th season as the music director of Opera Philadelphia, Corrado Rovaris is celebrated for his vibrant style, especially in the bel canto repertoire. Rovaris’ warm presence at the podium has made him a favorite among opera’s marquee vocalists.

Appointed in 2005 as Opera Philadelphia’s first ever music director, Rovaris opens the 25/26 season conducting its 50th anniversary gala, followed by the company’s premiere of Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims. He also leads the world premiere of Sleepers Awake by composer Gregory Spears, as well as The Seasons, a re-imagining of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons as conceived by Anthony Roth Costanzo, acclaimed countertenor and the company’s new general director, together with playwright Sarah Ruhl. Elsewhere, he conducts Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville, Spain.

A longtime proponent of new works, Rovaris played a key part in launching Opera Philadelphia’s annual Festival O, a two-week immersion featuring world premieres and other operatic happenings across the city, as well as the Aurora Series for Chamber Opera. Recent premieres include The Listeners by Missy Mazzoli; Glass Handel, an operatic art installation featuring the music of George Frideric Handel and Philip Glass co-produced by Opera Philadelphia and National Sawdust; Elizabeth Cree, a chamber opera by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts based on Peter Ackroyd’s novel; and Written on Skin by George Benjamin. Rovaris has established a close connection with the Curtis Institute of Music and since 2009 has led several joint Curtis-Opera Philadelphia productions, including the 2018 production of Bernstein’s A Quiet Place.

From 2012-2024, Corrado Rovaris was the Music Director of the Artosphere Festival Orchestra, founded in 2011 by the Walton Arts Center. In 24/25, he conducted the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra with acclaimed soprano Lisette Oroposa at Suntory Hall. Rovaris has performed at the world’s most esteemed opera houses, including most recently at the Paris National Opera for a new production of Bellini’s I Puritani. He has been to the New National Theatre in Tokyo three times, conducting l barbiere di Siviglia (24/25), Falstaff (22/23), and Don Pasquale (19/20).

Born in Bergamo, Italy, Corrado Rovaris graduated from the Conservatory of Milan with degrees in composition, organ, and harpsichord. From 1992 through 1996 he was the assistant chorus master of the Teatro alla Scala. Soon after, he began appearing as a regular guest in many of the major Italian opera houses such as La Scala, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Teatro La Fenice, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, and Teatro Comunale di Bologna. He has led productions for the Opéra de Lyon, Opera Monte Carlo, Théâtre Municipal de Lausanne, Deutsche Opera Berlin, Oper Köln, Oper Frankfurt, Teatro Regio di Parma, Oviedo Opera, and the Garsington Opera Festival, among others. In North America, Rovaris has conducted many times at the Canadian Opera Company and the Santa Fe Opera, as well as at the St. Louis Opera and Glimmerglass Festival.

Maestro Rovaris was awarded knighthood by the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 2015, and was honored in 2016 with the Franco Abbiati Prize.

MAY 2025