Carlo kicks off birthday party (From Penarth Times)

Carlo kicks off birthday party

CARLO Rizzi will kick off the Welsh National Opera's 60th birthday celebrations on Saturday conducting his favourite opera - Verdi's Don Carlos.

Carlo, who lives in Penarth, has just extended his tenure as Musical Director of the WNO until the end of the 2007/8 season.

Since his debut in 1982 he has worked at the world's leading opera houses including La Scala, Milan, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Metropolitan Opera, New York, Opra Bastille, Paris and Bayerische Staatsoper Munich with the likes of Bryn Terfel and Placido Domingo.

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.

Born in Milan, Carlo Rizzi was the WNO's Musical Director from 1992 to 2001.

He returned for the autumn season 2004 when he conducted the critically acclaimed Ariadne auf Naxos.

This spring he conducted the opening performances of WNO's inaugural season in its new home at the Wales Millennium Centre (WMC) - La traviata and Cavalleria rusticana & Pagliacci.

To launch the WNO's 60th birthday season 2005/6, Carlo will conduct Verdi's grand masterpiece, Don Carlos in Autumn 2005, followed by Wagner's The Flying Dutchman in Spring 2006.

Carlo Rizzi, who is separated from his wife, said: "I love being based in Wales because it means I am near to my children who live in Camarthen. I would eventually like to return to Italy but not in the near future."

Carlo says he greatly admires the work of Mozart and Bach but Verdi's Don Carlos remains his favourite opera.

This summer he conducted La pietra del paragone for Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro. Next season he will conduct a new production of I Vespri Siciliani for Zurich Opera, Nabucco at the Met and Un ballo in maschera for Turin.

Carlo said: "I am very happy to have been with the company at the point of moving into its outstanding new home in WMC, and as it now approaches its 60th birthday in the 2005/6 season. Thinking back to when I first arrived in Cardiff in 1992, I am very proud to see how the whole Company has developed to become the world-class ensemble it now is.