One could say it’s kind of astonishing – a phenomenon even – that tight-bodied and stubble bearded Lorenzo Viotti did not have to make a single note of music to become a much talked about sensation as a conductor of classical music and opera.
The Swiss hunk, born in Lausanne in 1990 as the son of late conductor Marcello Viotti and violin player Marie Laure Viotti, first took to social media as a twenty-something and started posting thirst traps of himself – working out at the gym, sweat covered, with iron chains left and right, in bathing trunks on the beach, or in cycling shorts, hiking up and down mountains. While there certainly are enough other young (and not so young) guys on Instagram doing the same, none of them are from the uptight realm of classical music. Which has an aura of elitism surrounding it and is rumored to be only for the elderly. As opposed to a young and vibrant pop culture, where artists with super bodies are omnipresent.
In the field of classical music such blatant sexiness is considered cheap and unworthy of the great masters. After all, talking about sex is one of the biggest taboos in classical music, even if so much of the repertoire is about ecstasy and being overwhelmed by sound. And the private sex life of the (mostly) men who wrote the music is off-limits. When some researchers suggested Schubert, Chopin and Beethoven were gay, the world of classical music almost had a collective heart attack.
Conductors, making this music come to life, are traditionally depicted as almost sexless. Sure, legends like Leonard Bernstein looked like a football captain in his youth, and his great competitor Herbert von Karajan posed with fancy sports cars and private jets in the 1960s, cementing the myth of his extraordinary coolness. Both men had trophy wives – one an actress from Chile, the other a fashion model from France – but the images these gods on the podium released of themselves were as far removed from the Viotti pictures as imaginable. That’s also true for other, later conducting stars such as Christian Thielemann, Mariss Jansons, or Kirill Petrenko, to name but a few.
Maybe that is why so many people took notice. Was Lorenzo Viotti a new breed of classical music conductors?
Looking at Viotti Jr.’s photos one is reminded of Nancy Etcoff’s book Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty in which she outlines how beautiful people in all ages and societies had doors open for them. And how beautiful people have always used that privilege to outrun the competition. Etcoff focuses mostly on women, which enraged many feminists back in 1999 when her book first came out, but what she writes also applies to men. It certainly applies to Lorenzo Viotti.
Bulgari’s 2022 Octo brand campaign.
So, before a single album came out, Viotti was a global celebrity. (Yes, there had been appearances in Schönbrunn, in Klagenfurt, Lyon etc., but nothing truly headline-worthy until his debut with the prestigious Berlin Philharmonic orchestra in 2020.) The number of his groupies swelled, who didn’t care about a Rigoletto in Stuttgart or a Cambiale di Matrimonio in Venice, nor about the Berlin Phil. They just lusted after the Instagram posts, and they were mostly younger women and gay men. Always a powerful combination.
The progressive Dutch snatched Viotti up first for a big position, making him the youngest music director ever of the Dutch National Opera (DNO) in 2021 as well as the head of the Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest. I recall being in the Netherlands at the time and marveling at the many magazine features Viotti got in the Dutch press – not in classical music publications, but in women’s and lifestyle or sports magazines such as Men’s Health that ran the headline “He’s so unbelievably fit as the new chief-conductor of the National Oper.” Viotti flexed his muscles for pull-ups on rings, exposing his hairy armpits. Not to mention a trail of hair running down into his low-flung black pants. Even the New York Times found this interesting enough to run a feature in September 2021 with the headline “The Maestro With a Gym Habit”, reporting on his “sporty social media posts” that “don’t fit the image of an opera conductor”. The German newspaper Die Welt ran an article in 2021 as well, claiming in its headline that Viotti was the “Sexiest Man am Pult”, i.e. the sexiest man with a baton on the podium. The accompanying image showed him in a green suit, open white shirt, and a caption that read “sixpack instead of symphonies?”
In other magazine stories you saw Viotti in colorful fashion outfits (green coat, purple shorts, red socks and white loafers on the cover of the magazine Weekend), appearing casually stylish and ultra trendy. Interestingly, there was never a woman in sight, nor talked about, only cryptical allusions to someone who had “broken his heart” were made. As a result, readers could see Viotti as a bachelor, sizzlingly single, or marvel at his social media bromance with Andreas Ottensamer, the solo clarinetist of the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra (a former underwear model with an equally impressive exterior). Together they cycled topless through their holidays in some beach paradise. Which went down well with Viotti’s female and especially his gay fan base who wondered aloud what was going on between “Lorenzo and Andy.”
Photo: Stephanie Pistel, Weekend.
To make things even more interesting, or to cash in on this, DNO teamed Viotti up with famously and openly gay stage director Barrie Kosky for a Puccini opera cycle in Amsterdam. And then things went fast. There were opening nights in the Netherlands, guest appearances in Zurich, Vienna, tv broadcasts etc. Viotti was everywhere for a while.
The Dutch press reported regularly that new Millennial audiences flocked to his concerts because they liked Viotti’s “vibe,” which included addressing the audience of the Nederlands Philhamonisch Orkest and chatting with them about the music they were about to hear, giving the newly converted classic afficionados a chance to experience the man behind the façade in the tux. That tux was a night-sky blue model, by the way, tailored to hug Viotti’s upper torso. The word slim fit might have been invented to describe the outfit.
In a way, Lorenzo Viotti was set to make it big. He inspired others to follow his example. Canadian conductor Yannic Nézet-Séguin – the new musical director of the Metropolitan Opera in New York – suddenly also posted topless holiday selfies of himself and his husband. Minus that body. Which had something of a reverse effect. Because as sexist as it sounds (and is): if you don’t have that physique the desired pr-effect on official social media accounts (as opposed to private accounts) won’t be reached.
Obviously, I went to as many Viotti concerts and operas as possible, his Tosca 2022 in Amsterdam, his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic where he stepped in for Nézet-Séguin with Mahler’s 3rd Symphony; I saw Viotti’s Csárdásfürstin stream from Zurich and his concerts from Vienna. Always expecting to be positively shaken. Transported even.
Just watching Viotti ‘impersonate’ a conductor was impressive, his movements, his gestures, his facial expressions. But the actual sound of music? At first, I thought Viotti might just have an off-night. But after more and more boring concerts and mediocre opera performances – and seeing him being positively rude and arrogant to his colleagues at official opening night parties – I grudgingly admitted to myself that not even the vista of Viotti could make me enjoy his music making.
Photo: Stephanie Pistel, Schon.
Eventually, even that vista became problematic. Because Viotti at some point began to just stand on the podium, as if he had swallowed a stick. Unsure of what to do with himself, with so much expectation weighing down on him? When he came to Berlin again in early 2025 to conduct a Richard Strauss blockbuster program he seemed almost tortured while making music. The Deutsche Oper had plastered the city with posters of Viotti, smiling from almost every subway station. He was so appealing that my younger sister, who hates classical music, asked me to take her along to the advertised concert “with that conductor.” It took me a while to talk her out of it. Even the local press – who had openly asked if Viotti might not be a good choice as a new music director of the Deutsche Oper to rejuvenate its image – had to concede that this Strauss concert was not his finest hour.
Viotti had prematurely quit his position in Amsterdam to be open for offers from bigger companies like Deutsche Oper Berlin where a well-paid position had become vacant. Viotti’s new and influential Munich based agency Hilbert Artists Management must have instructed him to revamp his social media account to appear more ‘conventional’ to be eligible for positions like the one in the German capital. Out went the fashion and gym and bromance images, in came a girlfriend, and a baby. Plus photos of a man hard at work with his musical scores. After all the Dutch lifestyle stories, and the Men’s Health features, a request from PLAYGIRL for an interview in Berlin was not even answered by his agency. Such things were now, apparently, below Viotti to even take note of. He was set for higher things. Yet the higher he rose, with engagements at La Scala in Milan and the Vienna Philharmomic, the more apparent it became that he was only a middle-of-the-road musician, blessed with phenomenal looks.
Photo: Hille Hillinga, Men’s Health.
Is that tragic? At least Viotti has proven that one doesn’t have to be a super jock to be a great conductor, far from it. One doesn’t even have to be young and dynamic. But one must care about the music in such a way that it becomes palpable for the audience. Only smiling seductively from posters is not enough as a “model of success,” to quote music critic Manuel Brug who said in a phone interview with PLAYGIRL that Viotti has somewhat “broken the spell” he had originally cast.
Making great music is about more than ripped muscles, even in our social media age. Nowadays, you don’t even have to be a man anymore to get ahead as a conductor. People such as Joana Mallwitz at the Konzerthaus Orchestra have kind of put Viotti in his place. The 39-year-old Mallwitz also beamed down at everyone in Berlin with a big poster campaign – and she became the new star in Berlin’s classical music firmament. With a recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon, the famous “yellow” label of Herbert von Karajan. She’s one of the few younger female artists to have broken through the glass ceiling of this male dominated field, making her debut as a conductor at the Metropolitan Opera in the spring of 2025. At an institution where Lorenzo Viotti has been noticeably absent.
The world of classical music could have used someone with Lorenzo Viotti’s lifestyle vibes, to brush up its crusty image. It seems legally blonde Joana Mallwitz has taken that step, without undressing nor a single gym photo, but simply by being a communicative artist who makes music fun to listen to. And to watch, when she conducts in her black suit. She also does the intros to her concerts, talking to the audience in such a way that every one of these pre-concert events is packed. With all age groups. She’s like the ultimate feminist musical revenge, you could argue. The New York Times wrote in April 2025 that she’s “in calm, stylish command” of the orchestra, making music “soar.” And that’s what it should be all about.
