The Italian conductor, particularly associated with Rossini and the bel canto repertoire, has died after a long illness. Fogliani, who had a decades-long association with the Rossini in Wildbad Festival, had been scheduled to conduct at the Puccini Festival just one day before his death.
Italian conductor Antonino Fogliani has died at the age of 50 after a long illness.
Born in Messina on 29 June 1976, Fogliani established an international career with a particular focus on Italian opera and the bel canto repertoire, conducting works by composers including Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini and Verdi.
Fogliani studied composition at the G. B. Martini Conservatory in Bologna before graduating in conducting from the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan, where he studied with Vittorio Parisi. He also graduated in Music Studies from the University of Bologna and continued his training at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, studying conducting with Gianluigi Gelmetti and composition with Franco Donatoni and Ennio Morricone.
An important early milestone came in 2001, when Fogliani made his debut at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro conducting Il viaggio a Reims. Rossini would remain central to his career in the decades that followed.
Fogliani appeared at major opera houses and festivals in Italy and internationally, including Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Teatro di San Carlo in Naples and Deutsche Oper am Rhein.
He developed an especially close association with Rossini in Wildbad, the German festival devoted to Rossini and the bel canto repertoire. After first appearing there in 2004, he later became the festival’s Music Director and conducted numerous productions and recordings during his long relationship with the event.
His discography included an extensive series of opera recordings, many made in connection with Rossini in Wildbad, encompassing both familiar works and rarely performed scores from the 19th-century Italian repertoire.
Fogliani remained professionally active until shortly before his death despite a long illness. He had been due to conduct Madama Butterfly at the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago on 22 August but was replaced by Leonardo Sini after becoming unable to conduct the performance. Sini replaced him again for La bohème on 28 August, a performance originally scheduled to be conducted by Fogliani just one day before his death.
Further engagements remained on Fogliani’s schedule for the coming months, including performances in Berlin, Munich and Bergamo.
The Teatro Massimo di Palermo paid tribute to Fogliani following news of his death, remembering a conductor of profound musical knowledge who had dedicated his life to music with passion, sensitivity and generosity.
His former teacher Vittorio Parisi also confirmed that Fogliani had died on the morning of 29 August after a long illness, saying that the conductor had continued working with remarkable strength until only a few days earlier.
Fogliani had been living in Cadempino, Switzerland. He is survived by his wife, Angelica, and their son, Lorenzo.
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