is one of the outstanding conductors of his generation. His international career began early with major awards and has taken him to the world's most prestigious opera houses and concert halls. From 1999 to 2002, he was Music Director of the Flemish Opera Antwerp/Ghent and from 2018 to 2022 Music Director of the Gyeonggi Philharmonic Orchestra: under his leadership, the orchestra was recognised as one of the best in South Korea.

In the current 2025 season, after his first collaboration with the Oslo Opera, he will make his debut at the Salzburg Festival Whitsun with Traviata, followed by a production of Nabucco at the Teatro Comunale di Modena/Reggio Emilia. He is then engaged by the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra for a symphony concert with Elsa Dreisig (Strauss' Vier Letze Lieder and Mahler's Fourth Symphony), as well as by the Monte-Carlo Opera for a production of Aida in the 2025/26 season.

Last season, in addition to his return to the Teatro Lirico in Cagliari and the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, he continued his more than twenty-year presence at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin and his long-standing collaboration with the Monte-Carlo Opera, where he conducted a new production of Don Carlo. Zanetti also opened the 70th Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the composer's death with a new production of Le Villi and Edgar, directed by Pier Luigi Pizzi, which were performed in their first version and as a diptych.

Highlights of recent opera seasons include I Due Foscari with Placido Domingo at the Monte Carlo Opera, a new production of Madama Butterfly at the Sydney Opera House, Don Giovanni, Butterfly, Traviata, Bohème, Fanciulla del West and Don Carlo at the Berlin State Opera, Carmen and Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Teatro alla Scala.

In recent years, Massimo Zanetti has worked with the NCPA Beijing, the Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona, the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, the Semperoper Dresden, the Chicago Lyric Opera, the Royal Opera House (Covent Garden), the Paris Opéra, the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Teatro Regio Parma, the Opera di Roma, the Comunale di Bologna, the Teatro Regio Torino, the San Francisco Opera, the San Diego Opera, the Royal Swedish Opera, the Opèra Royale de Wallonie, Teatro Real de Madrid, ABAO Bilbao and many others.

In the symphonic field, he has recently conducted the Yomiuri Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Stockholm, the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, the Bruckner Orchestra Linz, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, the orchestra of the Komische Oper Berlin with Mischa Maisky, several gala concerts of the Academy at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the orchestra of the Teatro Lirico in Cagliari and the Russian National Orchestra at the Rostropovich Festival in Moscow.

Zanetti has worked with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Weimar, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the CBSO, the Manchester Hallé Orchestra, the Finnish and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestras and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

In Asia, he has worked closely with the NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, the China Philharmonic and the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra.

Zanetti's successful work is also documented by an extensive discography. This includes ‘The Verdi Album’ with soprano Sonya Yoncheva and the Munich Radio Orchestra (Sony Classical, 2018), the recordings of Verdi's ‘Simon Boccanegra’ with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and Thomas Hampson (Decca, 2013), as well as “Rigoletto” and ‘I Vespri Siciliani’ as part of the ‘Tutto Verdi’ project with the Teatro Regio di Parma (Unitel Classica, 2008 and 2010). He has also recorded Flavio Testi's ‘Saül’ with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France (Naïve, 2004).