Conductor Anthony Barrese

Anthony Barrese, hailed by South Florida Classical Review as conducting “with passion and idiomatic fluency,” has earned accolades as both a composer and a conductor. He is the recipient of the 2007 Georg Solti Foundation U.S. award for young conductors. His original works have won numerous awards, and he is regularly engaged by opera companies in North America and Italy.

Currently serving as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of Opera Southwest, Mo. Barrese will lead the company’s productions of Dolores and Mosè in Egitto during the upcoming season. Barrese also serves as Music Director of OperaDelaware, a role he assumed in 2017. Additional engagements for the 2025-2026 season will include Zorro with Arizona Opera and The Merry Widow with Sarasota Opera.

2024-2025 season engagements included Madama Butterfly and the World Premiere of Llantos 1492 with Opera Southwest, L’elisir d’amore with Florida Grand Opera, La bohème with Opera Tampa, Donizetti’s Viva la mamma with The Florentine Opera, and performances of Handel’s El Mesías (Messiah) and Verdi’s Requiem with the New Mexico Symphonic Chorus. As part of the latter group’s recent alliance with Opera Southwest, Maestro Barrese also serves as their Artistic Director and Principal Conductor. Highlights from Mo. Barrese’s 2023-2024 season included L’occasione fa il ladro and Bluebeard’s Castle with Opera Southwest, L’infedeltà delusa at Sarasota Opera, and Zorro at Opera Santa Barbara.

In recent seasons, the Maestro has also conducted Zorro, Le comte Ory, Turandot, La scala di seta, La Traviata, Pelleas et Melisande, Ali Baba, Tosca, Maria de Buenos Aires, La cambiale di matrimonio, Lohengrin, Guillaume Tell, Le nozze di Figaro, Die Fledermaus, La Cenerentola, Rossini’s Otello with the American staged première of the finale lieto, and a “Return of Rossini” festival, all with Opera Southwest; Korngold’s rarely heard opera Die Kathrin with Folks Operetta; Il barbiere di Siviglia and Le nozze di Figaro with OperaDelaware; Sarasota Opera’s production of Roméo et Juliette; La bohéme with Opera Tampa; Kurt Weill’s operetta Johnny Johnson with Chicago Folks Operetta; The Merry Widow with Opera Saratoga; Suor Angelica and Il Tabarro with OperaDelaware; and Orfeo ed Euridice and Il barbiere di Siviglia with Florida Grand Opera.

Mo. Barrese has made débuts at Florida Grand Opera conducting Les pêcheurs de perles and Norma, Opera Theatre of St. Louis conducting The Kiss, Opera North conducting L’elisir d’amore, and Boston Lyric Opera conducting Don Giovanni. In 2014, Mr. Barrese held the prestigious honor of leading the world première of Franco Faccio’s little-known opera Amleto with Opera Southwest, not heard anywhere since 1871. With his background as a musicologist, Barrese worked vigorously for nearly ten years to rediscover, prepare, and edit the critical edition of Amleto, in conjunction with Casa Ricordi, for American audiences. In the following years, Amleto premièred on the east coast with Opera Delaware (under Barrese’s baton) and as a part of the Bregenz Festival in Austria (conducted by Paolo Carignani).

Mo. Barrese made his operatic conducting début in Milan with La bohème and made his début in France conducting Turandot at the Opéra de Massy. He led several productions with Sarasota Opera including, Lakmé, Le nozze di Figaro, and Hansel and Gretel; and a new production of Turandot in the historic Teatro Ventidio Basso, with a cast that included Nicola Martinucci as Caláf. Barrese was the Assistant Conductor of the Dallas Opera in 2006-2007 and later returned there as Guest Conductor for a production of Tosca, and La Wally. He also recorded Roberto Andreoni’s “quattro luci sul lago” with I Solisti della Scala, a chamber group made up of the first chair musicians of the La Scala Philharmonic, for broadcast on Italian National Radio (RAI 3).

Other notable highlights include being the recipient of numerous composition awards including a N.E.C. Contemporary Ensemble Composition Competition Award for his “Madrigale a 3 voci femminili,” The Sir Georg Solti Conducting award, and two B.M.I. Student Composers Awards.