At a distance, and maybe even up close, there’s something elusive about Robin Ticciati’s musical profile. Trained on violin, piano, and percussion, he turned to conducting in his teens with encouragement from Sir Colin Davis and Sir Simon Rattle yet no formal training. By his early 20s, he was on the podium of the Teatro alla Scala, the youngest maestro ever to appear there, subbing for Riccardo Muti. As music director at Glyndebourne, Ticciati’s operatic performances stand out for color, transparency, imagination, and bloom, all blessedly free of ego and demons. To date, Richard Wagner has figured only peripherally in Ticciati’s mix, which gives the prospect of this summer’s Tristan und Isolde a special frisson. —M.G.