Born in Venice in 1946, he studied music, medicine and archaeology. He qualified as a medical doctor but then trained as a conductor under Hans Swarowsky in Vienna. He was appointed a lecturer in contemporary and electronic music in Venice in 1972. His international musical career began with a variety of compositional activities (chamber and orchestral music, premiere of the opera Lou Salome in Munich in 1981). His conducting career took off in the mid-1970s with opera productions and performances at the major opera houses of the world including Vienna, London, New York, Milan, Florence, Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Dresden. Sinopoli performed and recorded with the great orchestras of Europe and America and made guest appearances in Vienna with the Philharmonic and the State Opera, in Milan at La Scala and in Japan. From 1983 to 1987 he was principal conductor of the orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. From 1984 he was principal conductor, and from 1987 to 1994 music director, of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London. He was a Bayreuth Festival conductor from 1985 to 2000. Giuseppe Sinopoli began working with the Dresden Staatskapelle in 1987, and was it's principal conductor from 1992 to 2001. He was appointed designated GMD of the Saxonian State Opera from 2003. He made numerous award-winning recordings and toured Europe, North America and the Far East with the Staatskapelle. Giuseppe Sinopoli died in Berlin in 2001.