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For Enrique Mazzola, the conductor's podium path began when he was a child in the children's choir of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan.
"Behind the scenes, all these monitors showed the conductor, used by the stage managers," recalled Mazzola, announced Thursday as the next musical director of Lyric Opera Chicago, during a phone interview.
"I was fascinated," he said. "I spent hours and hours watching the conductor."
Now, after being distinguished by the elegant and energetic performances of bel canto operas, French repertoire and early Verdi, he will succeed Andrew Davis, who plans to conclude his two-decade tenure in Chicago at the end of the 2020-21 season.
This will be a major change in the guard at Lyric, which struggles, like many opera companies, to survive as its habits change, and has had a brief strike by musicians last season. Mr. Davis, who directed 674 operas performances and music director since 2000, he originally planned to retire after leading Wagner's Ring cycle in the spring, but agreed to stay one more season.
Anthony Freud, general manager of the company, said in a statement that he was eager to work with Mr Mazzola, citing the "wealth of international experience" of the choir leader and adding that he "was extremely appreciated and respected" by the Lyric Opera Orchestra and Choir. .
Mr. Mazzola, who is currently the principal guest conductor of the Berlin Deutsche Oper and who until recently was artistic and musical director of the Paris Île-de-France National Orchestra, refused to give his age, describing himself as "old enough to assume the position of musical director and young enough to do so with energy and enthusiasm. He was greeted by the management of The Daughter of Donizetti Regiment last season at the Metropolitan Opera and Orpheus in the Underworld of Offenbach at the Salzburg Festival in Austria this summer.
Mr. Mazzola is the descendant of generations of musicians. When his voice changed and he could no longer sing in the choir of children, he became a turner of recital accompaniment pages then a pianist at La Scala while he was still a teenager , then a choirmaster in small operas and eventually an orchestral conductor.
He said he had been attracted to opera since he first conducted it in 2016 at the head of Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor".
"It's one of those operas where you enter the room and feel comfortable, you feel at home," he said. "It's very human."
He will return in October to lead Verdi's "Luisa Miller". And what does he think of Chicago's deep attack on another Italian classic, pizza?
"I like that a lot! He said.
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