Clelia Cafiero

Neapolitan conductor Clelia Cafiero currently serves as Principal Guest Conductor at the Opéra de Tours, and she first came to international attention with her Summer 2023 debut at the Chorégies d’Orange where she led the Orchestre National de Lyon in Carmen.

The 2024/25 season will see Cafiero make several important debuts, including in London debut when she leads the English National Opera in La bohème, at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège with La Perrichole, and a production of Così fan tutte with the Nikikai Opera Foundation marking her debut in Japan. Her symphonic debuts this season include subscription concerts with the Orchestre National de Lyon and special concerts with the Irish National Orchestra. She will also lead symphonic concerts and a production of Die Zauberflöte in Tours.

The 2023/24 season brought Cafiero to the Opéra de Marseille for La Traviata, the Angers-Nantes Opéra and the Opéra de Rennes for Tosca, and the Opéra de Tours for Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and a concert with the Orchestra dell’Accademia della Scala. Cafiero returned to Orange in Summer 2024 to lead the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice in a performance of Tosca that will feature Aleksandra Kurzak, Roberto Alagna and Bryn Terfel. Elsewhere she made her debut at the Festival Radio France, conducting the Orchestre national de Montpellier in Rossini’s Stabat Mater.

That season she also made a pair of recordings, including one of arias by Gluck, Mozart and others with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Marseille and tenor Nathan Granner, and one of a set of songs from the French and Spanish repertoire with  soprano Seren Sáenz and the Transylvania State Philharmonic. In previous seasons Cafiero made her highly successful Canadian debut at the Opéra de Quebec on Madama Butterfly, conducted Carmen at the Opéra de Marseille, and conducted symphonic concerts with  the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon, the Polish National Radio Symphony in Katowice and the Orchestre National de Lorraine. Some of her earlier engagements include the Musiques Interdites Festival in France, as well as the Lutoslawski Contemporary Music Festival and the 26th Beethoven Festival in Warsaw. She has also conducted the Cameristi della Scala on tour in Italy, the Czech Republic and China. 

Ms. Cafiero began her musical career as a concert pianist, which brought her to the stages of such auspices as the Concertgebouw, Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall, and the Philharmonie de Paris, among others. She worked regularly at the Teatro alla Scala as correpetiteur between 2013 and 2019. Ms. Cafiero studied piano and conducting at the conservatories in Naples and Milan, as well as at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. She also holds a master’s degree in philosophy from the University of Naples-Federico II. 

2024/25

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