Manon Lescaut Maestro Biography Nicola Luisotti (Viareggio, Italy) Director Asociado of Madrid’s Teatro Real, Maestro Luisotti was Music Director of San Francisco Opera from 2009 to 2018, where he conducted over 40 operas and concerts since his Company debut in 2005 and was awarded the San Francisco Opera Medal for artistic excellence. Among his distinguished San Francisco Opera credits, Luisotti co-led the Company’s world premiere commissioning project of Marco Tutino’s La Ciociara (Two Women), Salome, Lohengrin, Don Carlo and the Mozart–Da Ponte trilogy. Recent engagements include Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci at the Metropolitan Opera; Aida at Teatro Real; Tosca at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia; La Bohème and Falstaff at Royal Opera, Covent Garden; as well as concert performances at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome and the Richard Tucker Music Foundation Gala Concert at Carnegie Hall. His international credits include performances with Vienna State Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Genoa’s Teatro Carlo Felice, Venice’s Teatro La Fenice, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Turin's Teatro Regio, Munich’s Bavarian State Opera, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Dresden, Hamburg, Valencia, Los Angeles Opera, Seattle Opera, Toronto’s Canadian Opera Company and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall. Maestro Luisotti was awarded the 39th Premio Puccini Award in conjunction with the historic 100th anniversary of La Fanciulla del Westat the Metropolitan Opera, which he conducted there in 2010. Luisotti is the former Music Director of the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples where he conducted Aida, I Masnadieri and the Verdi Requiem in a historical performance in San Francisco with both companies involved. In the 2018–19 season, he conducts Aida, Rigoletto and La Traviata at the Metropolitan Opera; Turandot at Teatro Real; Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at the Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid; and La Forza del Destino at Opéra National de Paris. .