Gabriele Ferro, conductor closely associated with Palermo’s Teatro Massimo, dies at 88

The Italian conductor held leading positions in Palermo, Naples and Stuttgart, combining an extensive operatic career with a commitment to contemporary music.

Italian conductor Gabriele Ferro has died in Palermo at the age of 88, ANSA reported on October 29. He would have turned 89 on November 15. A former music director of Teatro Massimo and its honorary music director for life, he had conducted at the Palermo theatre as recently as October 11.

A career across opera and the concert hall

Born in Pescara in 1937, Ferro graduated in piano and composition from Rome’s Santa Cecilia Conservatory in 1960 and continued his training with conductor Franco Ferrara. He won the RAI conducting competition in 1970, developing relationships with the broadcaster’s orchestras, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and La Scala.

His principal appointments included the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, which he led from 1979 to 1997, and the RAI orchestra in Rome. He also served as general music director of Stuttgart Opera and music director of Teatro San Carlo in Naples, before returning to a leading role at Teatro Massimo in 2014. His connection with the Palermo theatre had already included a period as principal guest conductor between 2001 and 2006.

His international engagements took him to the Royal Opera House in London, La Scala, Deutsche Oper Berlin and opera houses in Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles. In the concert hall, he conducted ensembles including the Cleveland Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the Orchestre National de France.

An interest in new music

Alongside his work in the operatic repertoire, Ferro conducted world premieres of music by composers including Luciano Berio, Luigi Nono, György Ligeti, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Wolfgang Rihm. His conducting of Strauss’s Elektra in Naples earned him an Abbiati Prize in 2003. He also taught conducting at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole.

His October 11 appearance at Teatro Massimo brought together those different interests. The programme paired Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony and Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with his own Sintropia n. 5 “per Barbara”, inspired by a fragment of Sappho and incorporating live electronics.