Conductor Michele Mariotti makes his LA Opera debut with Il Barbiere di Siviglia (November 2009).

Michele Mariotti was born in Urbino, Italy, in 1979. He studied composition at the Conservatorio Rossini in Pesaro and, in 2004, received a summa cum laude in conducting at the Accademia Musicale Pescarese in the class of Donato Renzetti. During this time, he was invited to conduct the Filarmonica Marchigiana and the Orchestra Sinfonica of Pesaro. In September 2005, he made his debut in opera at the Teatro Verdi in Salerno with Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia.

In 2006 he conducted a symphonic concert at the Teatro della Fortuna in Fano, the Italian premiere of Luigi Zaninelli's Snow White at Teatro Comunale of Florence, for the Maggio Musicale Formazione, a concert in Ancona with the Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana and a concert with the Orchestra of Maggio Musicale, where he was awarded with the Primavera Prize as a distinguished young conductor. Following this, he conducted Gianni Schicchi in Fano, made his debut with Milan's Orchestra of Pomeriggi Musicali and conducted the National Orchestra of Ukraine at the Festival of Santander. At the Wexford Festival, in October 2006, he had a personal success conducting Donizetti's Don Gregorio. He also conducted the Toscanini Orchestra in a concert with singers Bruno Praticò and Paolo Bordogna.

He began 2007 with the Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana, in Fano, conducting Mario Totatro's La suite del Grande Arlecchino. After conducting L'Italiana in Algeri at the Teatro Comunale of Bologna and Teatro Comunale of Ferrara, he was awarded with the Toscanini Prize as the best young conductor by the magazine The Classic Voice. At Genoa's Carlo Felice, he made his debut with a concert and returned to the Orchestra Toscanini conducting Verdi and Rossini orchestral works. With the Teatro Regio of Turin he conducted Il Barbiere di Siviglia in many cities of Piemonte. He made his debut at Barcelona's Liceu conducting Sonia Ganassi in an all-Gluck program, and with the same program he went to Reggio Emilia's Valli with the Toscanini Orchestra.

He began 2008 with Don Gregorio in Fano. He conducted concerts in Bologna, Parma. Lugo and Pesaro and in March/April he conducted Rigoletto in Lima. In April he conducted Barbiere at Las Palmas, in May a concert in Parma with the Orchestra Toscanini, followed by I Puritani in Menorca in June. In July he made a personal success conducting Juan Diego Flórez and Rolando Villazón in concert and in August he conducted a concert at the Perelada festival.

He opened the 2007/08 season of the Comunale of Bologna conducting Simon Boccanegra, and after that success, the theater appointed him as its new Principal Conductor, succeeding Daniele Gatti. He will conduct productions of I Puritani, La Gazza Ladra, Carmen, La Rondine, a double bill of Violanta and Il Tabarro, Verdi's Otello and Aida, a contemporary work and many symphonic concerts.

Other future engagements include Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Theatre Royal of Wallonie and in Los Angeles, Munich and Washington; I Puritani at the Teatro Real in Madrid and in Japan; Nabucco at Festival Verdi; Don Pasquale in Turin and Washington; La Traviata at Macerata Sferisterio, La Fille du Regiment at San Francisco; and L'Italiana in Algeri in Bilbao.