Gaetano Donizetti’s opera is the first of three opera titles that will see the 33-year-old conductor take the podium of the Berlin institution during the 2026/27 Season

It is with a masterpiece of Italian bel canto that the 33 years old conductor Michele Spotti will return to the podium of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, this time in his new role as Principal Guest Conductor. From 5 to 18 September, he will conduct Gaetano Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, marking with this production – directed by Filippo Sanjust and featuring Nina Minasyan (Lucia Ashton), Galeano Salas (Edgardo di Ravenswood) and Mattia Olivieri (Enrico Ahston) – the beginning of a new phase of collaboration with the Berlin institution, which will see him take on several engagements throughout the 2026/27 Season. Spotti will conduct two further major works from the Italian operatic repertoire in Berlin: Giuseppe Verdi’s La traviata and Don Carlo, scheduled at the Deutsche Oper in December 2026 and May 2027 respectively, as well as a symphonic concert featuring works by Wagner and Berlioz.

Already Music Director of the Marseille Opera and Philharmonic Orchestra, Spotti made his debut at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in 2023 with Il viaggio a Reims and returned in 2025 with Rigoletto. This new appointment further consolidates an international career that in recent years has taken him to increasingly prestigious stages, from the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma to the Opéra national de Paris and the Arena di Verona, most recently reaching the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where he was invited to conduct La traviata in the fairytale production by Michael Mayer.

Following Lucia di Lammermoor in Berlin, Spotti will conduct a new production of Carmen by Ted Huffmann from 2 to 15 October, opening the 2026/27 Season at the Palau de les Arts in Valencia, followed by a concert on 22 October in Hong Kong with Juan Diego Flórez and the Hong Kong Philharmonic. Other Season engagements also include Die Zauberflöte at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Lohengrin at the Opéra national du Capitole de Toulouse – marking his second Wagnerian debut following Das Rheingold in Marseille – a concert with the Orchestre de chambre de Paris at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, L’elisir d’amore at Opernhaus Zürich and Anna Bolena at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, as well as several engagements in Marseille.

Photo credits: Michele Spotti © Marco Borrelli