Riccardo Frizza

Conductor Riccardo Frizza has been a fixture in Italy’s operatic scene while also appearing at such top international houses as the Paris Opera and the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He has conducted choral and symphonic music as well.
Frizza was born in Brescia, Italy, on December 14, 1971. He started out as a composer, attending the Milan Conservatory and studying under Elisabetta Brusa. Frizza then switched to conducting, working with Gianluigi Gelmetti at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena and Gilberto Serembe at the Music Academy of Pescara. Frizza began his career in his hometown with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Brescia, where he served as principal conductor from 1994 to 2000. His vocal music debut came when he led a performance of Rossini’s Stabat Mater at the Rossini Opera Festival in 2001. Frizza has since been associated with that festival, leading unusual Rossini repertory there, including Adelaide di Borgogna in 2006. That year, he conducted Rossini’s L’italiana in Algeri at the Washington National Opera in the U.S. Frizza broadened his repertory beyond Rossini, leading a performance of Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore in 2004 that won a Cannes Classical Award. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2009 with Verdi’s Rigoletto and has led several recordings made at the Met. Frizza’s Paris Opera debut came in 2012 with Rossini’s La Cenerentola. He took the stage at La Scala in Milan, the premier Italian opera house, in 2012 with the rarely performed Oberto, Verdi’s first opera. Another prestigious Italian debut came in 2015 at La Fenice in Venice, with Verdi’s La Traviata. In 2018, he traveled to Barcelona, Spain, to conduct a production of Rossini’s L’italiana in Algeri.
Frizza has led several recorded performances of unusual operas for the Dynamic label including Donizetti’s early Il Castello di Kenilworth in 2019. Most of his stage performances and recordings have involved Italian music, but he led a performance of Bohuslav Martinu's Mirandolina with the Belarus National Philharmonic Orchestra, released on Supraphon in 2004.
Frizza is married to soprano Davinia Rodriguez, whom he conducted in a 2005 performance of L’elisir d’amore. ~ James Manheim