A born Verdi conductor
Daniele Rustioni leads exciting performances of Aïda and Don Carlo in Munich
“Rustioni … basks in public and critical acclaim at the Bavarian State Opera, where last year his conducting of Berlioz’s epic, Les Troyens, was judged the only redeeming feature of a misconceived car-crash of a production (apart from 68-year-old Gregory Kunde’s superbly sung Énée).
In May he took musical charge of a new production, by his compatriot Damiano Michieletto, of Verdi’s problematic Aïda.
…For poetry, and dramatic thrills and spills, one had to listen to the orchestra which, apart from a couple of trumpet blips in the Triumphal Scene, was handled in masterly fashion by Rustioni (this was his third Aïda I have experienced in the theatre after Covent Garden and the Met).
…The following night, Rustioni showed why he has become one of the world’s most prized conductors of Verdi’s grandest opera, Don Carlo: he may have pulled out in London, but he jumped in for Daniel Barenboim, no less, in Berlin around the time of the Covent Garden revival. Here conducting a Munich ‘classic’ by the veteran director-designer, Jürgen Rose, in a far-more-integrated realisation of Verdi’s sprawling masterpiece than Nicholas Hytner’s rum Royal Opera effort, Rustioni displayed his virtues as a theatre conductor, coordinating cast, chorus and orchestra to give a performance more satisfying than the sum of its parts. With his ideal pacing - and Rose’s seamless scene changes on an almost unitary set - the evening passed in a flash with only one interval.
…one of the most enjoyable performances of Don Carlo I’ve heard in a long while. But the conductor was key.”
Operalogue, Hugh Canning