This weekend, Milan's daily Corriere della Sera ran a profile on the Genovese maestro, Fabio Luisi, who was chosen a couple months ago by The Metropolitan Opera as Principal Guest Conductor (Opera Chic broke the news here) for the next three years.
Luisi shares his many career highlights in the USA and Europe, and recounts that he initially chose to play sports as a child, but after being diagnosed with asthma, the doctor said to cool it with the athletics. Instead he excelled at piano and was taken as pianist by legendary soprano Leyla Gencer when he was only 18-years-old.
We don't see him that much in Italy, unfortunately, which he blames partially on the gradual breakdown of Italian opera house structure. But he hints that he'll be back at La Scala in 2012 for a new production of Don Carlo. In the meantime, the Metropolitan Opera has him as PGC, where he'll become "Maestro Metropolitano".