Life and career

Campanella was born in Bari on 6 January 1943. He studied composition under Nino Rota and Luigi Dallapiccola. He had Hans Swarowsky and Thomas Schippers as instructors in conducting.

Since the late 1970s, he has been known worldwide as a specialist in Bel Canto. However, his repertoire also includes works by Maurice Ravel, Igor Stravinsky, and Giuseppe Verdi, among others.

He performed at such major theatres as La Scala in Milan, the Metropolitan Opera of New York City, the San Francisco Opera, the Houston Grand Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, L’Opéra de Montréal, L’Opéra National de Paris, the Vienna State Opera, the Royal Opera House in London, the Liceu in Barcelona, the Municipal Theatre of Santiago, and the New National Theatre Tokyo.

He served as principal conductor at the Teatro Regio di Torino from 1992 to 1995. He then became the Teatro Regio’s principal guest conductor.

In 2002, the French Ministry of Culture awarded him the title of Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Campanella died in Burgos in August 2026, at the age of 83.[1]