New York City audiences are used to seeing just the top of Gianandrea Noseda’s head in the orchestra pit at the Metropolitan Opera, where the Italian maestro is a frequent guest conductor. But on May 19, Noseda will be front and center at Carnegie Hall with the National Symphony Orchestra.

Whether he is conducting an opera or a symphony, Noseda’s aim is to tell the story of the music through the performance. Each genre informs the other, he says. “The ultimate goal is just to sing, even for the instrumentalists. When I talk to them about espressivo—about phrasing like a singer—they immediately get what I am asking from them.”