Joseph Rescigno (born October 8, 1945) is an American conductor best known for his work in opera in North America and Europe. He served as Artistic Advisor and Principal Conductor of the Florentine Opera Company of Milwaukee, WI for 38 seasons beginning in 1981. He also served as Artistic Director of l'Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal, in Quebec, Canada, for four seasons. His commitment to young musicians and singers prompted his return each year from 2005 to 2025 to La Musica Lirica, a summer program for singers in Northern Italy where he served as Music Director."Making a Lasting Career" by Brian Manternach, Classical Singer, August 2008, Pages 24ff., "Lasciate che i giovani..." by Marco del Vaglio, Oggi 7, February 3, 2013, Page 7. He has mentored Solti Foundation U.S. Award recipients as part of the Foundation's residency project (newly expanded to opera) since the 2014–2015 season, first at the Florentine and later elsewhere. In this program, award recipients apprentice through an entire rehearsal and performance cycle. The Solti Foundation U.S. Announces Collaboration with Florentine Opera Company", September 10, 2014.
In addition, he serves on the advisory committee of the Olga Forrai Foundation, which supports the training, education, and career development of singers and conductors.Olga Forrai was a soprano of Hungarian birth and formed her foundation with Peter Herman Adler in 1981: Olga Forrai Foundation.
Rescigno is also the author of Conducting Opera: Where Theater Meets Music (University of North Texas Press, 2020).
Early years
Born October 8, 1945 in Flushing, Queens, Rescigno is the eldest of three siblings. His father, also Joseph Rescigno, was a medical doctor, and his mother, Leona Reese Llewellyn, was a singer who met her future husband while playing piano rehearsals for his brother, Nicola Rescigno., "Another Rescigno Conducts Connecticut Opera Chorus" by Ruthanne Devlin, The Hartford Times, April 21, 1971, Page 15 E.,
Maestro Joseph Rescigno's first music teachers were his mother and his paternal grandfather, Joseph Rescigno, who played trumpet for the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera as well as elsewhere in New York for several decades before World War II. So Maestro Joseph Rescigno was immersed in the language and culture of musicians from the day he was born. He counts about 10 musicians in the extended Rescigno clan, mostly in his grandfather's generation. The result was that he was sight-singing as a toddler., "Spécial du chef" by Dominique Olivier, Voir, March 14–20, 1996, Page 45.
While never his nephew's teacher in a formal sense, Nicola Rescigno was a significant influence and mentor. Being able to attend his uncle's rehearsals and performances in Chicago furthered the younger musician's education. It was there, in 1955, that he first watched the complex undertaking of assembling an opera production (and first heard Maria Callas in a piano rehearsal with his uncle conducting Il trovatore). As a teenager, he graduated to playing rehearsal piano for his uncle and others like Gianandrea Gavazzeni.
Rescigno attended a neighborhood parochial school, St. Mary's Nativity, and studied piano nearby with Prof. Mario Miccu, under whose baton he played Mozart's Concerto in A major, No. 23 (first movement) at Manhattan's Town Hall at age 9. He went on to military high school in Manhattan (Xavier High School) and later began studying piano with Ada Kopetz-Korf, with whom he would continue studying through college and graduate school.Ada Kopetz-Korf's career had included playing with such conductors as Leopold Stokowski, Dimitri Mitropoulos, and Wilfrid Pelletier; touring the United States and Canada as a part of the Philharmonic Piano Quartet; and recording for Columbia Records.
As a Fordham University freshman, Rescigno made his New York recital debut at Carnegie Recital Hall in a program of Beethoven's piano sonatas.Specifically, Nos. 7, 8, 15, and 21. Writing in the New York Herald Tribune, Judith Robison described Rescigno's "emotional depth and flair for pathos" in a review entitled "A True Bard's Strong Debut.""A True Bard's Strong Debut," by Judith Robison, in New York Herald Tribune, April 15, 1964, Page 20. He earned a bachelor's degree in modern languages and philosophy at Fordham, graduating summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa. And his college career included a year in Rome studying at the Gregorianum and the conservatory at Santa Cecilia as well as privately with Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli and Alberto Neuman. His senior honors thesis compared the character of Falstaff in Giuseppe Verdi's opera of the same name to the Falstaff character that appears in three of William Shakespeare's plays.
In 1969, Rescigno received his master's degree in piano from the Manhattan School of Music.The program of his master's recital included works by Soler, Beethoven, Debussy, and Mussorgsky. There, he also studied composition and conducting with Nicolas Flagello and met colleague and mentor Anton Coppola. Rescigno also came to know and admire Jonel Perlea, Hugh Ross, and soprano Ellen Repp,Ellen Repp was an American mezzo-soprano of Swedish descent. She sang in many major opera houses and taught singers who have gone on to major careers. Reviews from the 1930s and 1940s may be found at the New York Times web site. among others.
Career
Rescigno's lifelong ambition was conducting, and at the urging of Ellen Repp, he applied to study at the Mozarteum Salzburg's academy in the summer after he was to receive his master's degree. To qualify for the course he was given the task of sight-singing a melody by Pierre Boulez, and he was admitted. He took master classes with Herbert von Karajan, and played piano for Karajan's Don Giovanni rehearsals. In Salzburg, he also met Bruno Maderna who remained a friend and mentor long after that summer ended.,
Rescigno returned to New York and conducted the preparatory division orchestra at the Manhattan School of Music from 1969 through 1976. His first professional opportunity arose in 1971 thanks to a referral from his uncle: assistant conductor and chorus master for the Connecticut Opera in Hartford."Another Rescigno Conducts Connecticut Opera Chorus" by Ruthanne Devlin, The Hartford Times, April 21, 1971, Page 15 E. There he met and worked with Carlo Moresco and other visiting conductors. In the late seventies, he also served as artistic director of Artists International in Providence, RI,"Rescigno takes helm at Internationale" by Edwin Safford, The Providence Journal, January 29, 1979, Page A 16 C. and served as associate conductor for Laszlo Halasz at the Concert Orchestra and Chorus of Long Island.
In the late 1970s and 1980s, Rescigno's assignments occasionally took him to his uncle's company in Dallas, where he conducted student performances and worked on outreach activities.Central Opera Service Bulletin (pub. The Metropolitan Opera National Council), Vol. 23, No. 3, Winter-Spring 1982, Page 55. There, he met new mentors and advisors, notably Roberto Benaglio, the chorus master of La Scala, and Vasco Naldini, its prompter.La Scala West: The Dallas Opera under Kelly and Rescigno, by Ronald L. Davis (Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 2000). Both Benaglio and Naldini are first mentioned on Page 40. However, at the end of 1979, Rescigno was diagnosed with mouth cancer. Although he recovered fully, the illness resulted in some fall-off in offers to free-lance and dampened his spirit for a time."Something to talk about" by Natasha Gautier, Hour, September 5–11, 1996, Page 9.
In 1980, John Gage, a former actor and theater director turned opera company manager, was appointed general director of the Florentine Opera Company."Florentine Opera Company names new general manager," Milwaukee Sentinel, April 30, 1980, Page 5, Part 1. Later that year, he found himself in need of a conductor for La Gioconda, starring Gilda Cruz-Romo, the following March. Having worked with Nicola Rescigno, he called Dallas hoping that the maestro would be willing to come to Milwaukee. However, the elder Rescigno had never conducted the infrequently produced piece. He could think of only two names to recommend, one being that of his nephew, who ultimately conducted the opera."Lust and murders shake auditorium; 'Gioconda' in town" by Edwin Safford, The Providence Sunday Journal, March 13, 1977, Page B 10."Florentines offer a radiant 'Gioconda'" by Wynne Delacoma, The Milwaukee Journal, March 21, 1981, Page 9.
Later in 1981, Rescigno said yes to succeeding stage director David Hicks as Gage's artistic advisor, and he served in that capacity for 38 seasons, through three general directors: Gage, Dennis Hanthorn, and William Florescu.Central Opera Service Bulletin (pub. The Metropolitan Opera National Council), Vol. 23, No. 3, Winter-Spring 1982, Page 52. "Opera director needs steady vision" by Tom Strini, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, January 9, 2005, Page 4 E. And throughout this time, in the pit, he conducted the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, which he considers the foundation that allowed the company to think big. "Few opera [companies] have an orchestra such as the MSO to work with," he has been quoted as saying."Maestro's love affair going strong" by Tom Strini, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, November 4, 2001, Page 2 ECue.
In addition to his position in Milwaukee, Rescigno remained in demand as a guest conductor, and his career often took him to Canada. He conducted several productions for the Montreal Opera, leading both of the two orchestras it routinely used: the l'Orchestre Symphonique and l'Orchestre Métropolitain. In 1995, he recorded Verismo for the Montreal Opera, with soprano Diana Soviero and an orchestra composed substantially of the musicians of l'Orchestre Métropolitain. Soon after, he was appointed music director of that orchestra, causing something of a stir that abated after a few months., "Le nouveau chef de l'Orchestre Métropolitain, Joseph Rescigno: un choix étonnant" by Claude Gingras, La Presse, Montreal, December 6, 1995, Page E 1."L'autre orchestre, baguettes en l'air..." by Véronique Robert, L'actualité, March 1, 1996, Page 82."Something to talk about" by Natasha Gautier, Hour, September 5–11, 1996, Page 9."Un orchestre se trouve une âme", by François Tousignant, Le Devoir, October 9, 1996, Page B 7. Rescigno made four commercial recordings with the orchestra. In addition, under his leadership, the Orchestra won Quebec's Prix Opus for a program of all five Beethoven piano concertos with Anton Kuerti in the summer of 1997 at the Festival de Lanaudière."Les premiers prix Opus" by Louise Leduc, Le Devoir, January 9, 1998, Page B 11.