Opera Conductor, Composer. He had been music director of the Teatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro since 2002. Raised in Brazil after 1970, he attended the University of Brasilia where he studied conducting with Claudio Santoro. (After Santoro's death in 1989, Barbato was to promote several of his compositions). He also studied composition in Milan with Azio Corghi, and obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Barbato made his conducting debut with "Tosca" at age 25; from 1989 until 1992 he was principal conductor of the Brasilia National Theatre Symphony Orchestra, resuming the post in 1999. In 1990, he reopened the Teatro Amazonas in Manaus, which had been closed since 1907. Not restricted to his adopted Brazil, he conducted the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, and made frequent visits to his native Italy to conduct the Orchestra San Remo. Barbato was acclaimed in the United States, particularly for "La Traviata" at New Orleans in 2000, and for Bellini's "I Capuleti e Montecchi" at Charleston's Spoleto Festival in 2005. After taking over the Teatro Municipal, he was able to stage a number of noted productions, bringing international stars to Rio de Janeiro. A champion of composer Hector Villa-Lobos, he served as music director for the 2000 movie "Villa-Lobos: Uma Vida di Paixao," which won the Cinema Brazil Grand Prize for music. Recently, he had turned to composition; his two operas had been produced in Brazil and in Rome, and the manuscript of a third (about Simon Bolivar) was with him when he died. Among Barbato's honors was the Cultural Medal of Brazil. He died in the crash of Air France Flight 447 in the Atlantic Ocean which was en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.