Those women conductors keep coming

Royal Opera has named Speranza Scappucci as principal guest conductor. Italian-born and Juilliard-trained, she has declared in the Guardian that she hopes to help demystify opera for British audiences.

In her native Italy, conductor Speranza Scappucci stars in a national television show in which she sits at the piano explaining symphonies and operas to viewers, before performing them with an orchestra, to help bring classical works to new audiences.

Until last year, she was music director of Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège in Belgium. In January last year, Scappucci – who has also conducted at the Met in New York, Staatsoper in Berlin and the Opéra National de Paris – became the first Italian woman ever to conduct at Teatro alla Scala in Milan.