Conductor

Principal Guest Conductor at the Wexford Festival Opera, Francesco Cilluffo was born in Turin, where he graduated in Conducting and Composition from the “G. Verdi” Conservatoire, also graduating in History of Music from the University of Turin (DAMS). He furthered his studies in London, where he was awarded a Master at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and a PhD in composition at King’s College, London. He specialized at the Accademia Chiagiana (Siena), eventually assisting Michael Tilson Thomas, John Eliot Gardiner, Asher Fisch, John Mauceri and Lothar Zagrosek.

Among his most notable engagements: Cilea’s L’Arlesiana at the Teatro Pergolesi in Jesi (recorded in CD and DVD for Dynamic); Wolf-Ferrari’s Il Campiello for the opening of the season at the Teatro del Maggio in Florence and at the Teatro Verdi in Trieste; the world premieres of Le Braci (Embers) and Miseria e Nobiltà by Marco Tutino, at the Teatro del Maggio in Florence, at the Festival della Valle d’Itria and at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, where he also conducted Il Barbiere di Siviglia; L’Elisir d’amore at the Teatro Comunale in Modena and at the Teatro Regio in Parma; Rossini’s La Cambiale di matrimonio and a Verdi Gala at the Teatro Regio in Parma; La Traviata at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie, Liège; Zemlinsky’s Der König Kandaules at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo; new productions of Nabucco and Falstaff at the Kiel Opera; Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, Rigoletto, L’Elisir d’amore and Madama Butterfly at the New Israeli Opera, Tel Aviv; Tancredi, Trovatore, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Britten, La voix humaine, Cavalleria rusticana and Aida for OperaLombardia; Tosca at the Tulsa Opera (USA); Mascagni’s Isabeau, Puccini’s Le Villi, Delius’ Margot la Rouge and Leoncavallo's Pagliacci at Opera Holland Park (London); Verdi’s Requiem, Macbeth, Falstaff and Puccini’s Manon Lescaut and Tosca at the Grange Festival with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra; Le Nozze di Figaro and Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem at the Volksoper in Vienna; Madama Butterfly at the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago; Cilea’s Gloria and Boito’s Nerone for the openings of the 2023 and 2024 seasons of the Teatro Lirico in Cagliari (both recorded in CD and DVD for Dynamic).

Also active in the symphonic field, he has conducted: Verdi’s Requiem with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra; Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem with the Volksoper Orchestra in Vienna; Mozart’s Requiem (ed. Levin), Duruflé’s Requiem and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 14 with the Turin Philharmonic Orchestra ; Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde at the Festival della Valle d’Itria in Martina Franca; Cherubini’s Requiem in c minor with the Accademia Stefano Tempia in Turin; concerts with orchestras such as: Bremer Philharmoniker, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Dublin; Orquesta Filarmónica de Santiago, Chile; Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra; Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini in Parma (with the Italian premiere of Absolute Jest by John Adams), Orchestra of the Arena di Verona, Orchestra of the Teatro Lirico in Cagliari, ORT-Orchestra della Toscana, I Pomeriggi Musicali Orchestra in Milan.

At the Wexford Festival Opera, he conducted: Mascagni’s Guglielmo Ratcliff, Alfano’s Risurrezione, Leoni’s L’Oracolo, Giordano’s Mala vita, Catalani’s Edmea, Halévy’s La Tempesta, Tutino’s La Ciociara (Two Women) as well as several gala concerts with artists such as Daniela Barcellona and Claudia Boyle.

Future engagements include: Tosca and Manon Lescaut at the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari; Mascagni’s Le maschere at the Wexford Festival Opera; a new production of Turandot at the Staatstheater Mainz; symphonic concerts with the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini (for the Respighi Festival in Bologna), RTÉ Concert Orchestra (in Wexford and Dublin), the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto (in Padua and Milan) and the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana in Palermo.