The dynamic and talented Speranza Scappucci was in Los Angeles preparing for her West Coast debut as a conductor for the LA Opera production of La bohème recently. She brings to that production her diverse international experience, derived from an impressive lineup of engagements as a pianist, repetiteur, and conductor.
She is a graduate of the Juilliard School and the Conservatorio di Musica Santa Cecilia in Rome. The list of international houses and great conductors she has worked with as repetiteur/Assistant Conductor is impressive: Riccardo Muti (8 years as pianist and repetiteur), James Levine, Seiji Ozawa, Zubin Mehta at such major venues as the Vienna State Opera, the Metropolitan Opera New York, Chicago Lyric Opera, Teatro dell´Opera di Roma, Salzburg Festival, Salzburg Whitsun Festival, the Glyndebourne Festival, Santa Fe Opera, Glimmerglass Opera and New York City opera.
She made her conducting debut at the Yale Opera with Cosi Fan Tutte followed by a very successful production of I Capuleti e Montecchi. Since then, she has had a fabulous trajectory as a conductor with recent debuts at the Vienna State Opera, the Teatro Regio in Torino, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
Apart from her many professional successes, she has increasingly been gaining recognition as one of the more successful women professionals on the world stage, as evidenced by a recent mention on the occasion of International Women’s Day in Italian Cosmopolitan. It is even more impressive given that she has succeeded in having a career as a conductor, a field which is predominantly populated by men. Speranza is a very warm, intelligent, yet unassuming artist. She very graciously agreed to share her thoughts on a variety of subjects during the rehearsals prior to the upcoming production of La bohème in Los Angeles. She credits her success, in part, to her parent’s vision in educating her abroad when she was very young.
Here are a few excerpts from the interview:
I am working with the revival director Peter Kazaras and we are working on this as if it is a new production. We are working on making it fresh and rediscovering all of the characters the way that Puccini wrote them. When we step onto the podium we are musicians. Whether we are women or men, musicians have their own sensitivity and sensibility as musicians.
After a few years…I realized that while I was coaching or working for other conductors I felt this urge to voice my own ideas. The way I was playing the piano, lots of singers told me: you lead from the piano and I think you could really conduct. So, I took courage and decided to go for it. I am really happy that I can make my debut in Los Angeles with this piece because it is a beloved piece for the audience, but I love it, too, and I want to make it very true to what the author wrote.
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