Gianandrea Gavazzeni (1909-1996) was an Italian conductor, composer and writer, one of the major figures in twentieth-century Italian opera. He was closely associated with La Scala and with the revival of Italian repertory.

In the Pristine catalogue he appears in Verdi and Rossini with Ettore Bastianini, Maria Callas and other important singers.

Gavazzeni’s conducting was idiomatic, literary and theatrically alert, grounded in deep knowledge of Italian opera from the inside rather than from the tourist balcony.

His page is justified by both catalogue presence and wider standing. Gavazzeni gives the Italian opera shelf a conductor with ink, instinct and stage dust on his shoes.