“An opportunity to deliver” Daniele Rustioni, starts his tenure as Met Principal Guest Conductor with Don Giovanni

Daniele Rustioni has quickly emerged as one of the most in-demand conductors in the opera world, with a keen ear for detail, sensitivity, and nuance when working with singers and orchestras. Now the Principal Guest Conductor of the Metropolitan Opera, the third person to ever hold the position in the company’s history, his inaugural season, includes the classic Zeffirelli production of Puccini’s La bohème as well as Giordano’s Andrea Chénier. Rustioni opened up about this exciting new phase in his career in a conversation this summer in Munich, where he held the Principal Guest Conductor title from 2021 to 2023, just a few hours before a performance of a new production of Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci. His thoughts have been lightly edited for clarity.

Starting his first official season at the Met with Don Giovanni, which opens again on Thursday, will be special for Rustioni, particularly in the quintessential Italianate quality of the Mozart/Da Ponte trilogy, which invites the “the wonderful link between words and music and the constant discovery of the new unwritten colors in the espressione of the text.”

“In European houses today,” Rustioni adds, “they give Mozart only to Baroque interpreters. It’s something that drives me crazy,” even though using “original instruments creates some sound that’s not in the DNA of the orchestra.” Meanwhile, with the Met Orchestra’s stylistic sensibilities, if “I can just be free and try to give Mozartian interpretation of Don Giovanni with a fantastic and lyrical orchestra then I will be a happier conductor.” With La bohème, Rustioni will perform Puccini for the first time at the Met and the revival of Umberto Giordano’s Andrea Chenier, which will be livestreamed in cinemas and broadcast on December 13, hearkens back to the company’s rich performance history of the French Revolution-set melodrama.