Neapolitan conductor Clelia Cafiero is regarded as one of the most exciting conductors of her generation. She gained international recognition with her acclaimed debut at the Chorégies d’Orange in the summer of 2023, where she conducted Carmen with the Orchestre National de Lyon, and again in April 2025 through her widely praised last-minute substitution at the Opéra national de Paris in the French version of Don Carlos.
The 2026/27 season features a series of major engagements across Europe, Asia, and North America. She makes her debut at San Francisco Opera with Thea Musgrave’s Mary, Queen of Scots and later returns there with Puccini’s Tosca. Other operatic highlights include her debuts at Ópera de Oviedo with Verdi’s Macbeth and at the Opéra national du Rhin with Rigoletto. She also returns to the Nikikai Opera Foundation in Tokyo with La bohème and conducts the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in a concert performance of Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda.
Alongside her operatic career, Clelia Cafiero is increasingly establishing herself on the international concert stage. She returns to the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano and the BBC Philharmonic, while making debut appearances with the Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano and Trento, the Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava, the Yamagata Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and the Orchestra del Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi di Trieste, among others.
The previous two seasons were already marked by an impressive series of international debuts. In opera, she made her first appearances at the English National Opera (La bohème), the Opéra Royal de Wallonie (La Périchole), Cincinnati Opera (Tosca), the Nikikai Opera Foundation (Così fan tutte), Opera Australia (Carmen), the Staatsoper Unter den Linden (La bohème), and the Semperoper Dresden(La Traviata). She also returned to the English National Opera for Carmen and a concert programme.
Her symphonic debut engagements during this period included appearances with the Orchestre National de France, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, BBC Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de Lyon, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, and at Festival Napa Valley. Additional highlights included a gala concert with Piotr Beczała and the Orchestra of the Polish National Opera, as well as a return invitation from the Orchestre national Montpellier Occitanie.
From 2022 to 2025, Clelia Cafiero served as Principal Guest Conductor of the Opéra de Tours, where she played a significant role in shaping both operatic productions and symphonic programmes.
Further operatic engagements have included Tosca at the Chorégies d’Orange, Madama Butterfly at the Opéra de Québec, Carmen and La Traviata at the Opéra de Marseille, Tosca at the opera houses of Angers-Nantes and Rennes, and Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Opéra de Tours. Her concert engagements have brought her to the Gulbenkian Orchestra, the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Accademia della Scala, the Orchestre National de Lorraine, and the Festival Radio France, among others.
Clelia Cafiero studied piano and conducting at the conservatories of Naples and Milan, as well as at the Mozarteum University Salzburg. She also holds a Master’s degree in Philosophy.
2026/2027
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