which really comes across. cheering and applause he steps down from his post in rome in september 2023, and the following summer, he leaves the royal opera house after a record 22 years. but it won t mean the end of tony s love affair with opera. he will be a guest conductor here at the royal opera house in covent garden, where there have been so many key changes during his time as music director. i ve been invited to see tony in rehearsals for an upcoming performance with one of the biggest names in opera and a personal favourite, german tenorjonas kaufmann, who always relishes the opportunity to work with tony. it s. ..lovely to see you. welcome. and to see you, thank you.
tony and the team at covent garden also want to expose young performers from a variety of backgrounds to opera. the royal opera house youth opera company is a talent development programme here at the royal opera house. we have an open recruitment process every year, and it s really important to us that our company really reflects the city that we live in. so we try to make sure there s a real variety of socioeconomic backgrounds, of ethnicities and an even gender split as well. the majority of our young people who join us will come from families who probably have had no real experience of opera. what s it like for them working with sir antonio pappano? do they appreciate that they are in the midst
and i had very little conducting experience, so you re thrown in the deep end, and if you survive that, you come out, you know, enriched and, sure, battle scarred. tony may have been barenboim s protege, but he soon began making his own mark. however, at first, he had no ambition to become a conductor. i must say that i m still getting around to the idea of being a conductor. ijust kind of. i did it a little bit at the beginning, and then it became more and more. and then i did it and then all of a sudden i was being rehired. miracle of miracles. that s the key, to be rehired. and ijust fell into it. and then it was bigger than me. and i went along with it. sir antonio pappano made his debut as an opera conductor in 1987 with puccini s la boheme at the state opera house in norway, where three years
he wants to smell every little new idea that comes up, every glimpse. tony is the music. he unites everyone. he cares about securing the future of opera and helps to train the big names of tomorrow. maestro pappano has been a great help into nurturingl talent of people like me who are young artists. l he s very encouraging. i go behind the scenes at the royal opera house to see tony in action and ask if opera is losing its relevance for new audiences and whether he thinks it s making itself fit for the future. i think every major opera house wants to entice younger audiences. it must do everything and be open to the interests of many different people. let me take you to the opera!
sir antonio pappano, or tony, as he prefers to be known, has the signature flair of his italian roots, combined with a detailed knowledge of music that has made him one of the most popular conductors of our age. tony has been in so much demand that over the last two decades he s simultaneously held two leading posts music director at the santa cecilia orchestra in rome and at london s royal opera house. he s such a unique personality as well as a wonderful musician and artist. there s that inimitable fire, that unquestioning commitment that he brings to every single performance that he does here. it s that level of passion