Orchestra of the Teatro Regio

The Orchestra of the Teatro Regio descends from an orchestra founded at the end of the nineteenth century by Arturo Toscanini, under whose direction many historic opera productions were staged, including the first performance in Italian of the Twilight of the Gods (1895) and the world premiere of Bohème by Puccini (1896). Toscanini also conducted numerous concerts, among which the series of 43 concerts for the 1898 Italian General Exhibition of Turin and the 5 concerts on the occasion of the International Exposition of 1911.

With the exception of the period between the two world wars, the orchestra has never interrupted its activity, demonstrating a marked versatility in confronting both the standard repertoire and twentieth-century works. It has been the permanent orchestra of the Regio since 1967, engaged in the complete Opera Season and numerous symphony concerts every year. The orchestra has been involved in many highly successful performances, including La Damnation de Faust by Berlioz (stage direction by Luca Ronconi), awarded the “Franco Abbiati” Prize in 1992, La bohème by Puccini, realized in 1996 on the occasion of the centenary of the opera with Luciano Pavarotti and Mirella Freni (also broadcast live on television), and Fedora by Giordano with Mirella Freni and Plácido Domingo. In 2001 it performed the world premiere of Carmen 2, Le Retour by Jérôme Savary and the Italian premiere of Lear by Aribert Reimann; in 2003, it performed another Italian premiere, A Streetcar Named Desire by André Previn. The Quartet Society of Vercelli awarded it the “Viotti d’Oro” International Prize in 2000.

The orchestra has performed with the most renowned soloists and has been conducted by such internationally famous conductors as Roberto Abbado, Ahronovič, Bartoletti, Bychkov, Campanella, Gelmetti, Gergiev, Maag, Oren, Pidò, Steinberg, Tate and finally Gianandrea Noseda, who has occupied the position of Music Director of the Teatro Regio since 2007.
In recent seasons the Orchestra of the Regio has also accompanied important ballet companies, including the unforgettable Bolshoi Ballet Theatre of Moscow and the Kirov Ballet of the  Mariinskii Theatre of St. Petersburg.

As guest of numerous foreign festivals and theatres, the orchestra performed Sly by Wolf-Ferrari at the Acropolis in Nice in 2000 with José Carreras and Zazà with Leo Nucci at the Opéra; in 2001 it went on tour in France with concerts in Paris, Toulouse, Toulon e Lyon; in 2008 it was a guest at the Internationale Maifestspiele of Wiesbaden (where it returns in 2011) for Rigoletto under the direction of Gianandrea Noseda.

Again with Maestro Noseda, the Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Regio carried out a triumphant tour of Japan and China in the summer of 2010, taking La Traviata to Tokyo and La Bohème to Yokohama and Shanghai, and performing two choral-symphonic concerts which were highly successful. The Japanese music critics then awarded, at the 23rd edition of the Music Pen Club Prize, the “Concert Performance Prize” to the Teatro Regio; in addition, the “Ashhi Simbun” and “Nikkei” newspapers have included La Traviata among the best musical performances of 2010, and one of the most important musical journals, the “Ongakunotomo”, has drawn up a classification with the opinions of 35 critics who put the Regio’s Traviata in first place as an opera production.

Along with numerous historical recordings re-issued in the last few years by Hardy Classic, the Orchestra and Chorus of the Regio appear in videos of some of the most interesting productions of recent Opera Seasons of the Regio: Medea by Cherubini conducted by Evelino Pidò (Hardy Classic/Rai Trade), Edgar by Puccini in the first contemporary performance of the original version in four acts conducted by Yoram David and Thaïs by Massenet conducted by Gianandrea Noseda with Stefano Poda’s staging (ArtHaus/Rai Trade), to be followed by Adriana Lecouvreur and Aci, Galatea e Polifemo (Dynamic).

In 2003 members of the Orchestra formed the Filarmonica ’900 del Teatro Regio, an autonomous group engaged in numerous projects in addition to the Concert Season of the Regio.

The orchestra

° First chair players

* Teatro Regio is grateful to Fondazione Pro Canale of Milano for making available their instruments to professors Sergey Galaktionov (violin Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, Torino 1772), Stefano Vagnarelli (violin Francesco Ruggeri, Cremona 1686), Cecilia Bacci (violin Santo Serafino, Venezia 1725), Enrico Carraro (viola Giovanni Paolo Maggini, Brescia 1600 ca.) and Umberto Clerici (cello Giovanni Grancino, Torino 1712).