A Conductor Between Two Worlds: Sir Antonio Pappano Comes to Hong Kong

A Conductor Between Two Worlds: Sir Antonio Pappano Comes to Hong Kong
Some conductors command a stage. Others inhabit it entirely. Sir Antonio Pappano belongs to the second kind—and Hong Kong is about to find out exactly what that means.
Two Nights, Two Worlds
Pappano arrives at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre with the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia for two concerts that together read like a statement of artistic faith. On November 22nd—Thanksgiving night, a holiday Pappano confesses he rarely gets to celebrate—the program opens with Glinka and Tchaikovsky before building to the towering centerpiece: Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto, performed with the extraordinary Daniel Trifonov. “It’s quite a tortured, wonderful exploration,” Pappano reflects. Not a showpiece. A reckoning.
The following evening brings an all-Beethoven program: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor with the luminous Seong-Jin Cho, and Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony—fate’s knock, still resonant after two centuries. Both nights share the same pulse: drama, destiny, and the unrelenting forward momentum of music that refuses to stand still.
The Theater Man
At the Royal Opera House, Pappano has served as Music Director for sixteen years—a tenure so deeply woven into the institution’s fabric that The Guardian once called him its most popular performer. He has recently extended his commitment through at least 2023, and it shows in how he speaks about the place: not as an employer, but as a family.
Yet Pappano is equally committed to his role at the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, one of the oldest musical institutions in the world. The balance between the two, he says, was intentional. “One of my goals fifteen years ago was to try to get more balance between the symphonic repertoire and the operatic in my musical life.” That balance has sharpened him. The opera has made him a more dramatic symphonist; the symphony has made him a more musical opera conductor.
Every Note, a Story
Beneath Pappano’s thinking lies a single, unshakeable conviction: all music must tell a story. Even without a libretto, without a stage, without a singer in sight. “Sonata form is theatrical in its very nature,” he explains—a drama of conflict, departure, and return. He carries this belief into every rehearsal, urging his musicians to feel the narrative even when none is written.
He describes Puccini as “the ultimate theater man”—a genius of timing, color, and emotional architecture. But Pappano’s theatrical instincts extend to the present. He has championed contemporary operas including The Minotaur and Anna Nicole, works that feel urgent and alive precisely because they are alive. His message to audiences is quietly radical: open your horizons. Don’t just receive the canon—let the new work in.
A Stage Still Expanding
Pappano arrives in Hong Kong not as a visitor passing through, but as an artist at full reach—attentive, restless, and deeply serious about what music can do to a room full of people. These two nights will not simply be performances. They will be arguments, beautifully made, for why classical music still matters—and why its greatest stories are far from finished.

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Sir Antonio Pappano: Hong Kong Concerts & His Vision
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Sir Antonio Pappano speaks to Radio 4 about his Hong Kong concerts, his dual roles in London and Rome, and why every great piece of music must tell a story.