NICOLA LUISOTTI LEADS A NEW PRODUCTION OF NABUCCO SHARED BY LA SCALA AND ROYAL OPERA, VERDIS REQUIEM WITH TEATRO

DI SAN CARLO, AND RIGOLETTO, TOSCA, COS FAN TUTTE AND HIS FIRST LOHENGRIN WITH SAN FRANCISCO OPERA 2012-2013 SEASON HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDES ORCHESTRAL ENGAGEMENTS IN PARIS, MILAN, ROME AND SAN FRANCISCO September 7, 2012 The 2012-13 Season finds Tuscan conductor Nicola Luisotti entering his fourth season as Music Director of San Francisco and beginning his tenure as Music Director of Teatro di San Carlo in Naples. As Music Director of San Francisco Opera, Luisotti begins his 20122013 performance season conducting great works of Verdi, Puccini, Mozart and Wagner: Rigoletto, Tosca, Cos fan tutte and his very first Lohengrin. The Maestro returns to Milan and London for Verdis Nabucco in a production shared by La Scala and Royal Opera. Appointed Music Director of Teatro di San Carlo in February of 2012, Luisotti will follow his highly acclaimed February 2012 performances of Verdis rarely performed opera I Masnadieri with performances of the composers monumental Requiem scheduled for early 2013. Conducting with such passion, tension, such perfect timing and emphasis (Seen and Heard International), Luisotti garners high acclaim for his orchestral conducting as well as his work in the opera house. This season he makes appearances with four great orchestras, including Filarmonica della Scala, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestra di Santa Cecilia in Rome and his own San Francisco Opera Orchestra presented by Cal Performances in programs anchored by great works such as Prokofievs Symphony No. 3, Tchaikovskys Symphony No. 4, Beethovens Symphony No.2 and Brahms Symphony No.3. Maestro Luisotti made his La Scala debut in May 2011, conducting Verdis Attila with expressive finesse and dramatic lacerations (delteatro.it) in a new co-production by Gabriele Lavia which was then performed by San Francisco Opera this past June. Recent triumphs also included Puccinis rarely performed La fanciulla del West which Luisotti led at both the Metropolitan Opera and San Francisco Opera. Praised by the New York Times for his stylish, nuanced and sensitive conducting at the Metropolitan Opera, Luisotti was honored to lead performances commemorating the birth of this important Puccini work, the Met Operas first world premiere commission in 1910. Following the official 100th Anniversary performance, Luisotti was awarded the Premio Puccini Prize by the Fondazione Festival Pucciniano. The recording of the centennial production was recently released on DVD by Deutsche Grammophon. Luisotti made his San Francisco Opera debut in 2005 conducting La forza del destino and has since led performances of La bohme, Il trovatore, Salome, Otello, La fanciulla del West, Aida, Le nozze di Figaro, Madama Butterfly, Turandot, Don Giovanni, Carmen, and Attila with the company. Called both an original thinker and a great respecter of tradition by Opera News, which featured him on the cover of the July 2011 special issue on conductors, his critically acclaimed international debut leading a new production at the Stuttgart State Opera led to performances with nearly every major opera company across the globe, including the Bavarian State Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Dresden Staatskapelle, Frankfurt Opera, La Scala, Los Angeles Opera, Metropolitan Opera, Paris Opera, Royal Opera House, Seattle Opera, Teatro C arlo Felice, Comunale di Bologna, Teatro La Fenice, Teatro Real, Teatro di San Carlo, and Vienna State Opera. He made his debut in Japan, where he served as Principal Conductor of the Tokyo Symphony from April 2009 to 2012, with a semi-staged production of Tosca at Suntory Hall and has since returned for Turandot, La bohme, and the Mozart/Da Ponte trilogy of Don Giovanni, Le nozze di Figaro and Cos fan tutte. Equally acclaimed as an orchestral leader for his blazing and idiomatic conducting (Chicago Classical

Review), the Italian conductor has worked with Frankfurts Alte Oper, Atlanta Symphony, Bavarian Radio Orchestra, Berliner Philharmoniker, Budapest Radio Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Filarmonica della Scala, Hamburger Philharmonic, Hessischer Rundfunk Orchestra, London Philharmonia, NHK Symphony, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Orquesta Nacional de Espaa, Philadelphia Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, Dresden Staatskapelle, San Francisco Symphony, Tokyo Symphony, and Zagreb Philharmonic. Luisotti led special concerts in Beijing in conjunction with the 2008 Olympic Games. For more information on Maestro Luisotti, including downloadable photographs and an updated biography, please visit www.nicolaluisotti.com. International press representation: Karen Ames, karen@karenames.com San Francisco Opera press representation: Jon Finck, jfinck@sfopera.com Nicola Luisotti 2012-2013 Season Performance Calendar Verdi, Rigoletto San Francisco Opera September 7, 8, 11, 12, 15, 16, 18, 19, 21 and 23, 2012 San Francisco, CA For official information: http://sfopera.com Wagner, Lohengrin San Francisco Opera October 20, 24, 28, 31, November 3, 6 and 9, 2012 San Francisco, CA For official information: http://sfopera.com Puccini, Tosca San Francisco Opera November 15, 16, 18, 20, 21, 24, 25, 27, 28 and 29, 2012 San Francisco, CA For official information: http://sfopera.com Concert Orchestre de Paris January 9 and 10, 2013 Verdi, La forza del destino overture Stravinsky, Concerto for violin; Gil Shaham, Violin Tchaikovsky, Capriccio italiano Prokofiev, Symphony No. 3 Paris, France For official information: http://www.orchestredeparis.com/ Concert Teatro alla Scala Filarmonica della Scala January 14, 2013 Verdi, Nabucco overture Tchaikovsky, Violin Concerto in D major Op. 35; Ray Chen, Violin Beethoven, Symphony No. 7 Milan, Italy

For official information: www.teatroallascala.org/ Concert Teatro alla Scala Filarmonica della Scala January 21, 22 and 24, 2013 Rimsky-Korsakov, Shhrazade Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 4 Milan, Italy For official information: www.teatroallascala.org/ Verdi, Nabucco New Production Teatro alla Scala February 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 13, 15, 17 and 20, 2013 Milan, Italy For official information: www.teatroallascala.org/ Verdi, Requiem Teatro di San Carlo February 24, 26, 28, March 1 and 3, 2013 Naples, Italy For official information: http://www.teatrosancarlo.it/ Verdi, Nabucco New Production Co Production with La Scala (premiered February 2013) Royal Opera House, Covent Garden March 30, April 1,4, 6, 8, 15, 20, 23 and 26, 2013 London, UK For official information: http://www.roh.org.uk/ Concert Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia May 11, 12 and 13, 2013 Cherubini, Requiem Beethoven, Symphony No. 2 Rome, Italy For official information: http://www.santacecilia.it/index.html Concert - Cal Performances San Francisco Opera Orchestra May 17, 2013 Puccini, Capriccio Sinfonico Rota, Piano Concerto Brahms, Symphony No. 3 Berkeley, CA For official information: http://calperfs.berkeley.edu/ Mozart, Cos fan tutte San Francisco Opera June 9, 12, 18, 21, 26, 29 and July 1, 2013 San Francisco, CA For official information: http://sfopera.com