Around the Music Festival

The state-run Opera Australia has announced that Andrea Battistoni will become its new music director, starting in January 2026.

Battistoni will spend approximately three months in Australia each season, and his first season will include conducting new productions of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and Turandot.

Opera Australia is undergoing a complete change of leadership, with a new chairman, chief executive, and artistic director. Glyn Davies, who served as chairman from 2021 to 2022, will return as the new chairman.

Davies, a public policy expert who served as vice president of the University of Melbourne and is currently secretary to the prime minister, will lead the restructuring.

Additionally, Alex Badd, who has spent approximately 20 years at Opera Australia and held various executive roles including Executive Producer, has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer.

Most recently, he served as Director of the Canberra Theatre Centre, where he demonstrated his ability to significantly improve audience attendance and revenue, generating high expectations for his future contributions.

With the vacant position of Music Director now filled by Battistoni, the remaining role to be filled is that of Artistic Director. The previous holder suddenly resigned in August 2024.

Battistoni is a 38-year-old native of Verona. After studying at the Verona Conservatory, he gained international attention at the Verdi Festival in Parma in 2010 and made his debut at La Scala in Milan in 2012 at the age of 24, the youngest ever.

He was appointed principal guest conductor of the Carlo Felice Opera House in Genoa in 2013, and served as its principal conductor from 2017 to 2019.

Since 2016, he has been the principal conductor of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, and in January of this year, he was appointed music director of the Teatro Regio in Turin, Italy.

He made his debut with Opera Australia in 2018, conducting Puccini’s Tosca. Since then, he has appeared frequently as a guest conductor, conducting a total of four works in 2022: Turandot, Verdi’s Otello and Attila, and Boito’s Mefistofele.

PHOTO：Regio di Torino　/　Marco Borrelli


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