Conductor François Lopez-Ferrer will open the 48th Rossini Opera Festival, running 12–24 August 2027 in Pesaro, Italy, with a new production of La donna del lago. The staging marks the festival return of director Johannes Erath, whose 2024 Pesaro production of Ermione won the Abbiati Prize for Best Production of the Year — setting high expectations for this new collaboration.
The announcement came during the festival’s ROF Talks 2026 series, which also revealed a revival of Rosetta Cucchi’s 2018 staging of Adina, a new production of Tancredi conducted by Yves Abel and directed by Paul Curran, and a closing performance of Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle conducted by Francesco Lanzillotta. With the opening-night podium, François Lopez-Ferrer takes on one of the most prominent assignments in the 2027 season.