This past Tuesday, forty-five year old Italian Maestro Nicola Luisotti has been appointed the new Music Director of the San Francisco Opera, and will assume his new position with the 2009-10 season. He will succeed Donald Runnicles. SF Opera General Director David Gockley said in a statement, “Nicola Luisotti is the ideal music director for the next stage in the company’s life, a passionate music maker who is especially experienced in the Italian repertory.”
Endearingly stated by the incoming Maestro Luisotti:
"Era stato il mio sogno quello di tornare a lavorare a San Francisco. Considero un grande privilegio dirigere l'orchestra di questa città così piena d'incanto, di tradizioni culturali. Mi piace la gente di San Francisco. Mi piace tutto di questa città."
Translation, "It had been my dream to return to work in San Francisco. I consider it a great privilidge to direct the orchestra of a city that is so full of enchantment, and of cultural tradition. I like the people of San Francisco. I like everything about this city."
Of Luisotti's cultural legacy and involvement with music, he gave an interview with Corriere a few years ago, and shared an anecdote of previous summers that his family passed with Maestro Giacomo Puccini:
"Mio nonno andava a caccia di folaghe in barca sul lago di Massaciuccoli con Puccini. E a Bergeggia, in Lucchesia, dove sta la mia famiglia, Puccini veniva sempre a sentire il gioco delle campane. Dall' epistolario ho appreso che lì ha tratto l' ispirazione per l' inciso delle campane all' alba nella Tosca".
Translation: "My great great uncle would go duck-hunting in a boat on the lake of Massaciuccoli with Puccini. And to Bergeggia, in Lucchesia, where my family was, Puccini came always to hear the playing of the [church] bells. I later learned from his letters that he got the inspiration of the bells in Tosca from hearing them when he stayed with us."
In bocca al lupo al nuovo Maestro!
