MUTI, RICCARDO

born July 28, 1941, Naples, Italy Italian conductor of both opera and the symphonic repertory. As a child Muti studied piano at the conservatory of Naples; later he spent five years at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory of Milan studying composition and conducting. Following a successful debut with the Italian Radio Symphony Orchestra in 1968, he appeared as a conductor with leading orchestras in Europe and the United States. He served as principal conductor of the Florence Maggio Musicale from 1969 to 1980, and he succeeded Otto Klemperer as principal conductor of the New Philharmonia (after 1977, Philharmonia Orchestra) of London in 1973. He remained principal conductor until 1979 and was music director from 1979 to 1982. In 1977 he became the principal guest conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra and served as its music director from 1980 to 1992. Active as an opera conductor from 1970, he led the first modern uncut performance of Gioacchino Rossini's William Tell in Florence in 1972 and championed less-well-known works by Verdi as well as operas by Giacomo Meyerbeer and Gaspare Spontini. He became music director of La Scala in Milan in 1986. Muti's orchestral repertoire included many 20th-century works.