Generalmusikdirektor Hessisches Staatstheater Kassel

Francesco Angelico has been General Music Director of the Hessisches Staatstheater Kassel since the 2017/18 season. In November 2019, he extended his contract until 2025.

During Angelico’s initial term, he presented with great acclaim Richard Wagner’s tetralogy ‘Der Ring des Nibelungen’ under the direction of Markus Dietz, which concluded with “Götterdämmerung” in March 2020 and will be revived in the 2022/23 season. In the current season, Francesco Angelico also conducts Pyotr  Tchaikovsy’s “Pique Dame”, Giuseppe Verdi’s “La forza del destino”as well as symphony concerts.

Francesco Angelico regularly conducts at leading opera houses worldwide. In 2020/21 he returned to the Bavarian State Opera in Munich with Gaetano Donizetti's "Liebestrank" and conducted Giacomo Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" at the Opera Graz – due to the pandemic only until the dress rehearsal. In April 2022, he gave his debut at Gothenburg Opera with a new production of Guiseppe Verdi's "Rigoletto" and in June 2022 at the Riga Opera Festival with Verdi's "Simon Boccanegra". In 2022/23 he will return to Gothenburg Opera and give his debut at the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse with Arrigo Boito’s “Mefistofele”.

In January 2023, Francesco Angelico will take the podium of the German National Youth Orchestra for the first time on tour with Christian Tetzlaff as soloist.

After completing his cello studies in 2001 at the Conservatory in Modena, Francesco Angelico began his conducting studies in 2003 under Giorgio Bernasconi at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, which he successfully completed in 2006. During this time, he was assistant to Bernasconi within the frame of a concert series for contemporary music entitled ‘900 Passato e presente’, presented by the Swiss public broadcasting organisation in Lugano. Contemporary music continues to hold a place of particular significance within Francesco Angelico’s symphonic repertoire.

From 2013 to 2017, Francesco Angelico was Principal Conductor of the Tiroler Symphonieorchester-Innsbruck, and also of the Tiroler Landestheater (Innsbruck) from 2015 until 2017. He received the ‘Österreichischer Musiktheaterpreis’ (Austrian Musical Theater Prize) for his production of Cilea’s ‘Adriana Lecouvreur’ in 2016.

In 2011, Francesco Angelico was awarded the ‘Deutscher Dirigentenpreis’ (German Conducting Prize).

Francesco Angelico was born in 1977 in Caltagirone, Sicily.

SEASON 2022/2023