Italian conductor Gianluca Marcianò has been increasingly in demand since his operatic debut with Croatian National Opera in 2007. Praised in the Sunday Times for his “unfailingly theatrical and idiomatic conducting”, Marcianò is the Principal Conductor of Orchestra ICO della Magna Grecia, Principal Guest Conductor of Armenian State Symphony Orchestra, Artistic Director of the Al Bustan Festival in Beirut, the founder and Artistic Director of the Festivaof Lerici Music, and the Artistic Director of Chelsea Opera Group. From 2017-19 he was Principal Conductor of the Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad, Serbia, and from 2011-14 he held the position of Musical Director/Principal Conductor of the Tbilisi State Opera, Georgia.
Engagements in 2023/2024 include Aleko/ Gianni Schicchi at Grange Park Opera, La forza del destino at Teatre Principal de Palma.
Operatic engagements in the UK include Jonathan Miller’s production of La bohème and Anthony Minghella’s production of Madama Butterfly (English National Opera); Otello (Grange Park Opera); Falstaff, Un ballo in maschera, Don Carlo, Eugene Onegin, Samson et Dalila, Madama Butterfly, Tosca, I Puritani, The Queen of Spades and La traviata (Grange Park Opera); Puccini’s Edgar (Scottish Opera); Die Zauberflöte, Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte and La traviata (Longborough Festival Opera); and Nabucco, Manon Lescaut, La traviata, La Favorite and Alzira (Chelsea Opera Group).
Elsewhere he has conducted Nabucco (Ópera de Oviedo); and Tosca and Die Fledermaus (Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus, Minsk; La traviata, Madama Butterfly and La Bohème (Lithuanian National Opera); Pagliacci in Moscow; Tosca (Festival Pucciniano, Torre del Lago) Olimpiade (Teatro di San Carlo); Un ballo in maschera, Andrea Chénier, Turandot and Nabucco (Ópera de Oviedo); (Ópera de Oviedo); La Forza del Destino, Cavalleria Rusticana, Nabucco, Attila, Il trovatore, Mitridate, re di Ponto, and Aida (Tbilisi State Opera); Nabucco (SNG Opera Ljubljana); Nabucco, La traviata, Turandot, Carmen, La Cenerentola and Il barbiere di Siviglia (Croatian National Theatre Zagreb); and La traviata (Prague State Opera).
As an orchestral conductor, Marcianò has conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia, Polish Baltic Philharmonic, Wroclaw Philharmonic, the Georgian Philharmonic, the Tokyo New City Orchestra, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra, the Oviedo Filarmonia, the Moscow City Russian Philharmonic, the Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra Classica de Madeira, the State Youth Orchestra of Armenia, the BBC Concert Orchestra, The World Orchestra, the Voivodina Symphony Orchestra, the Macau Orchestra, the Beijing Symphony Orchestra and many others.
He has worked with many great singers and instrumentalists such as Elina Garanča, Sumi Jo, Simon Keenlyside, Sondra Radvanovsky, Olga Peretyatko, Danielle De Niese, Renaud Capuçon, Gautier Capuçon, Steven Isserlis, Boris Andrianov, David Geringas, Sergej Krylov, Nina Kotova, Maria João Pires, Khatia Buniatishvili, and Denis Kozhukin.
In 2018, Marcianò recorded the CD “Momento Immobile” for Rubicon Classics with soprano Venera Gimadieva and the Hallé Orchestra.
This biography is for information only and should not be reproduced.
Aleko / Gianni Schicchi
Grange Park Opera, June 2024
Conducting, Gianluca Marciano extracted maximum juice from [Aleko] with heady playing from the BBC Concert Orchestra
Marciano is in his element [in Gianni Schicchi] and brings many lovely colours and tints to Puccini’s effervescent music.
Neil Fisher, The Times
“Gianluca Marcianò didn’t hold back the BBC Concert Orchestra strings, which were richly upholstered in Aleko, while the whole orchestra buzzed and chattered in Schicchi to end the evening on an ebullient note.”
Mark Pullinger, Opera Magazine
Conductor Gianluca Marciano moulds the Rachmaninov beautifully, the balance of the BBC Concert Orchestra . . . well shaped.
Nicholas Kenyon, The Telegraph
The BBC Concert Orchestra created an atmospheric sound for the four orchestral numbers in Aleko, and they and conductor Gianluca Marciano were idiomatic in both operas.
Roy Westbrook, Bachtrack
With Gianluca Marciano conducting the BBC Concert Orchestra idiomatically . . . this double production cannot be recommended too urgently or ardently.
Alastair Macaulay, Financial Times
The BBC Concert Orchestra under conductor Gianluca Marciano play wonderfully in both operas.
Charles Hebbert, Culture Whisper
Excellent conducting by Gianluca Marciano
Mark Ronan, The Article
Andrea Chénier, Chelsea Opera Group
Queen Elizabeth Hall, May 2022
"The conductor on this occasion, Gianluca Marcianò, is a real find. I enjoyed his conducting of Puccini’s La bohème at English National Opera (review) but this was another step up: his pacing was impeccable throughout, creating just the right dramatic tension. He works with his singers superbly and is with them like their shadow. Marcianò’s beat is expressive and focused solely on his musicians, without a hint of show. There is no doubt he brought out the best from COG’s orchestra, including negotiating the occasionally perilously fast string writing but even more importantly, finding a huge palette of colour in Giordano’s masterly score. His long-range view of the work enabled the final act to make its full emotive force."
Colin Clarke, Seen and Heard International
"The uniformly fabulous cast at the QEH understood this absolutely, and conductor Giancula Marcianò inspired the COG Orchestra to follow suit."
Claire Seymour, Opera Today
Falstaff
Grange Park Opera, June 2021
Gianluca Marcianò conducts a taut performance, even managing to supply bite in the opening passages despite a reduced and distanced BBC Concert Orchestra. Unlike Falstaff himself, the orchestra is less “fat” than usual, and the sound less full-bloodedly operatic, yet Marcianò still shows how the instruments colour and illuminate the text.
John Allison, The Telegraph, 11 June 2021
...the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Gianluco Marciano, showed their colours with fine, secure playing.
Fiona Maddocks, The Observer, 19 June 2021
The BBC Concert Orchestra [...] play their hearts out for Grange Park regular Gianluca Marciano.
David Mellor, Daily Mail, 12 June 2021
The strengths of this production were top-notch. [...] under Gianluca Marcianò, Verdi’s score sounded bright and youthful…
Mark Valencia, Opera Magazine, August 2021
Don Carlo
Grange Park Opera, June 2019
Gianluca Marciano conducted with pace and insight, persuading the orchestra of English National Opera to show their best Italianate fervour. Crowd scenes and auto-da-fé proved overwhelming, while the private episodes were intense and communicative.
Fiona Maddocks, The Guardian, 15 June 2019
The English National Opera Orchestra under the baton of Gianluca Marcianò keeps a taut, flowing pace. Its exemplary support of the singers means that voices are never overwhelmed. The nuanced playing makes it possible to relish Verdi’s orchestration all the more, both when it melds with the singing and in the magnificent instrumental sections.
Valeria Vescina, Seen and Heard International, 8 June 2019
In the pit, Gianluca Marciano prized the impetus and impulse of this final version of the opera, and he and the orchestra kept the drama moving without ever making us feel rushed. The orchestra was on top form, thrilling in the big moments yet able to scale things back and the performance never threatened to overbalance what is essentially an intimate account of Verdi's grandest opera.
Robert Hugill, Opera Today, 10 June 2019
wonderfully supported by the orchestra of the English National Opera under the vibrant baton of Gianluca Marciano, who conducted the same production three years ago.
Mark Ronan, The Article, 10 June 2019
... no such imbalance came from the performance of the English National Opera Orchestra under the baton of Gianluca Marciano. In fact, the quality of the playing and the inspired direction were among the evening’s chief pleasures – along with the rose gardens all around, still idyllic despite the dripping rain.
Melanie Eskenazi, musicOMH, 17 June 2019
...the fine acoustics of the Theatre in the Woods allowed the score to ignite in a noisy, combustible performance under Gianluca Marcianò...
Mark Pullinger, Opera magazine, August 2019
The Hallé cond. Gianluca Marcianò / Momento Immobile
Rubicon; RCD1021 / release date 26 October 2018
The Halle, conducted by Gianluca Marciano, are sympathetic collaborators throughout
BBC Music Magazine, January 2019
Un ballo in maschera
Grange Park Opera, June 2018
Musically it’s smooth sailing, thanks in no small part to the superb playing of the Orchestra of English National Opera - in residence for the season - under the assured guidance of conductor Gianluca Marciano. Marciano wrings every ounce of drama from the score, from the quietest motivic and coloristic gestures to the most terrifying monumental climaxes, and he paces the drama discerningly; the dramatic sweep from Amelia’s drawing of the name of the conspirator who will be Riccardo’s assassin to the final tragic moments was compelling.
Claire Seymour, Opera Today
Gianluca Marcianò, who has virtually become Grange Park’s house conductor in the Italian repertoire, was able to put his trust in the ENO Orchestra’s inbuilt experience in accompanying singers, allowing them the space to shine. Marcianò not only drew out the score’s sonic subtleties but also paced its almost Shakespearean interplay of light and dark with admirable expertise.
Matthew Rye, Bachtrack
Marvels arose from the orchestra pit as the English National Opera Orchestra made its GPO debut under the assured baton of Gianluca Marciano.
Mark Valencia, WhatsOnStage
With ENO’s orchestra making its first appearance in the Grange Park pit this summer as part of a new collaboration, conductor Gianluca Marcianò brought genuine Verdian sweep to an interpretation equally notable for dynamism and precision.
George Hall, Financial Times
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