The lively British-Italian conductor has been illuminating operatic masterworks from his early days as Daniel Barenboim's assistant at the Bayreuth Festival to his celebrated tenures as conductor of the Royal Opera House and the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. An emotional cartographer of sorts, Pappano excels at extracting the pathos and drama from each score, whether mining the playful, delicate arias of Mozart or the dense, action-packed overtures of Verdi. Particularly notable are his impassioned Tristan und Isolde and his authoritative and nuanced Aida.