The conductor Stefano Ranzani has appeared at some of the world’s leading opera-houses, including the Teatro alla Scala, Vienna State Opera, Washington Opera, the Barcelona Liceu, Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Paris Opéra Comique, Berlin Deutsche Oper, Zurich Opera, the Bavarian State Opera, the Teatro Municipal of Santiago, Chile, Hamburg State Opera, and many others. He also enjoys a career as an orchestral conductor, working with a similarly distinguished list of orchestras throughout Europe and in Japan. From 2007 to 2008 he was Musical Director of the Teatro Massimo “V. Bellini” in Catania, and began the 2009/10 season with his début at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, conducting Puccini’s Il trittico, followed by Rigoletto at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and Madama Butterfly at the Berlin Staatsoper. Born in Milan, Stefano Ranzani first studied the violin, followed by piano and composition, and has dedicated himself to conducting since 1983, having studied with Leonard Bernstein and served as assistant to Gianandrea Gavazzeni.