Bel canto crusader: Riccardo Frizza on fighting for Donizetti

Riccardo Frizza in the empty Teatro Donizetti

Riccardo Frizza

Riccardo Frizza conducts at the 2020 Donizetti Opera Festival

The set for Marino Faliero in the Teatro Donizetti

Riccardo Frizza rehearses at the Liceu, Barcelona

By Mark Pullinger, 09 March 2021

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“It’s not about how good is the music, but how good is the drama, because this is theatre”

Mark Pullinger, 7th April

The Hong Kong-born conductor talks about her entry into music, her love of big Russian repertoire, her “Cinderella moment” winning the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition and her ambition to “go against the grind”.

Opera in the blood: Speranza Scappucci

Mark Pullinger, 17th March

The Royal Opera’s Principal Guest Conductor explains her passion for opera, her journey into the pit and how good conductors share the attributes of football managers.

A jack of all trades: Michael Spyres on Vienna, Tristan and Verdi

Chanda VanderHart, 6th March

Chanda VanderHart talks to the American tenor about his Tristan debut at the Met, his love for Vienna and Otto Schenk, and the incredible scope of his repertoire.

Ben Glassberg on depression and a journey back to music

Elisabeth Schwarz, 16th January

Elisabeth Schwarz sits down with the British conductor to talk about his history of mental illness, his coming out and his journey back to the joy of music.

Nathalie Stutzmann joins Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo

Bachtrack, 11th December

French conductor Nathalie Stutzmann will be the first woman to hold the position of Artistic and Music Director of Monaco’s orchestra in its 170-year history.

Bachtrack top ten: Gaetano Donizetti

Mark Pullinger, 29th November

A hugely successful composer of bel canto opera, Gaetano Donizetti had a lasting impact, with many of his operas entering regular rotation in houses around the world for almost 200 years.

Mark Pullinger

Mark has been a Bachtrack editor since 2014. He is also an experienced critic, writing hundreds of reviews for the site, as well as a freelancer writing for other magazines and newspapers. He also writes programme notes and blogs on Substack. Mark has a particular passion for the operas of Verdi as well as Russian and French repertoire. Outside the concert hall and opera house, Mark enjoys cooking and travel and is probably at his happiest let loose in a French patisserie or a Viennese coffee house.