The conductors
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There are three conductors for this Competition - Richard Hickox and Ralf Weikert for the BBC National Orchestra of Wales' preliminary concerts and Carlo Rizzi for those of the Orchestra of Welsh National Opera.
Singers reaching the Final will be accompanied by the same conductor as in their round, so potentially all three could take part in the Final. |
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Richard Hickox
One of Britain's leading conductors, Richard Hickox is Principal Conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and from January 2005 will be Music Director of Opera Australia (Sydney). He founded the City of London Sinfonia in 1971 of which he is Music Director. He is also Associate Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, Conductor Emeritus of the Northern Sinfonia and co-founder of Collegium Musicum 90. Guest engagements include concerts with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Orchestre de Paris and Dutch Radio Philharmonic.
Recent operatic engagements apart from Sydney have included his debut with the Vienna State Opera and appearances with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden and English National Opera. In future seasons he will return to all these houses, as well as making his debut with the Washington Opera.
Richard Hickox he has made over 250 recordings with Chandos Records. He has won four Gramophone Awards, a Grammy, two Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards, the first ever Sir Charles Groves Award, the Evening Standard Opera Award and the Association of British Orchestras award. Richard Hickox was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Jubilee Honours List in 2002.
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Carlo Rizzi
Born in Milan, Carlo Rizzi studied with Ferrara at the Milan Conservatoire. Since his debut in 1982 he has conducted major orchestras including the Atlanta, Chicago and St. Louis Symphonies, the Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Israel, Gothenburg and Stockholm Philharmonics and all the London orchestras. He has worked at leading opera houses including La Scala, Milan; Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Metropolitan Opera, New York; Opéra Bastille, Paris and Bayerische Staatsoper Munich .
Carlo Rizzi was Musical Director of Welsh National Opera from 1992 to 2001 where repertoire included Fidelio, Boris Godunov, Peter Grimes, Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci, Tristan und Isolde, Turandot, Il barbiere di Siviglia, The Turn of the Screw, Der Rosenkavalier, Katya Kabanova, Madame Butterfly and Salome.
He has recorded La traviata, Rigoletto, Faust, La Cenerentola and Un ballo in maschera with Teldec Classics. This summer he will conduct La pietra del paragone for Rossini Opera Festival, Pesaro and next season a new production of I vespri Siciliani for Zurich Opera, Nabucco at the Met and Un ballo in maschera for Turin.
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Ralf Weikert
Ralf Weikert was born in Austria and studied at the Bruckner-Konservatorium in Linz and the Musikhochschule in Vienna.
Until 1977 Ralf Weikert was Musical Director of the City Theatre in Bonn. After a period as executive Music Director at Frankfurt Opera, he went to Salzburg in 1981 as Principal Conductor of the Mozarteum Orchestra and Director of the Landestheater. In 1974 Weikert made his debut at the Vienna State Opera followed by the Hamburg State Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Bavarian State Opera, Munich and the Metropolitan Opera, New York. He is a regular guest at the Salzburg, Aix-en-Provence and Bregenz Festivals and the Arena di Verona.
Ralf Weikert was Music Director of the Zürich Opera from 1983 to 1992. He now works as regular guest conductor with the opera houses in Zürich, Munich, Düsseldorf, Dresden and Vienna as well as with numerous orchestras on both sides of the Atlantic. During the 2002/03 season he conducted opera in Santiago de Chile, Helsinki, Hamburg, Munich and Vienna.
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