Pier Luigi Pizzi

Director, stage director, and costume designer Pier Luigi Pizzi was born in Milan on June 15, 1930, where he completed his studies of architecture and obtained his first theatrical experiences in collaboration with Giorgio Strehler and Giorgo De Lullo; he worked with director Luca Ronconi for a number of years. Since 1951, when he started his career as a stage director, Pier Luigi Pizzi took part in more than 350 stage projects all over the world.

He debuted as opera director in 1977, by staging Don Giovanni by Mozart at Teatro Regio in Turin, with Rugger Raimondi staring in the title role. That year marked the commencement of his full-time career as opera director who, however, has unceasingly applied his experiences of the stage director and the costume designer. Each staging by Pizzi brings about a comprehensive creative intent.

Although Pizzi’s name has been inseparably connected with the revival of the Baroque opera, he continues to feature severity and imagination as his personal characteristics. Within the framework of the 300th birth anniversary of Rameau, he staged an unforgettable presentation of his opera Les Indes Galantes at Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris in 1983, which was then performed also in Dijon and at Teatro La Fenice in Venice in the same year. In 1985, Pizzi staged St John’s Passion by Bach at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris. The same year saw other Baroque productions by Pizzi performed in Paris: Alcesta by Gluck, originally composed for Grand Théâtre de Geneve, and Rinaldo by Händel, staged in co-production with Teatro Romolo Valli di Reggio Emilia. The Baroque cycle which so enchanted Paris, continued in Italy in 1986, including its rendering at Teatro Reggio Emilia with Dido and Aeneas and Ode to St Cecilia by Purcell, combined into a single performance. In the nineties, again in France, Rameau’s opera Castor et Pollux was performed at the Festival at Aix-en-Provence, and Armida by Gluck at L’Opéra Royal de Versailles.

In 1988, the French Grand Prix de Syndicat de la Critique Musicale nominated Pier Luigi Pizzi the “Personality of Music of the Year”. He presented William Tell by Rossini at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, staring José Van Dam, in March 1989. He was awarded the Grand Prix de Syndicat de la Critique Musicale de France for this outstanding venture, which was described as the best opera performance of the 1988/1989 season. In the nineties, Pizzi was awarded two accolades by the President of the French Republic: the Order of the Chevalier of Arts and Literature, and the order Legion d’Honeur.

Pizzi has cooperated with the world’s most significant opera houses, such as La Scala in Milan, Burgtheater in Vienna, the Vienna State Opera, L’Opéra de Paris, Covent Garden of London, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Arena di Verona, Teatro La Fenice in Venice, and other operas in Florence, Naples, Rome, Palermo, and Parma. He staged a number of projects for the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro.

As a director, Pizzi has also made use of various non-theatrical premises: he staged a Luciano Beria adaptation of Orfeus by Monteverdi at the courtyard of Palazzo Pitti in Florence in 1984; one year later, he performed Mozart’s opera Il Re Pastore at Olimpico di Vicenza. He staged two works, which originally took place in the Roman times: Attila by Verdi and Norma by Bellini, at the arena in Nîmes. He presented Puccini’s Turandot at Rocca Brancaleone in Ravenna in July 1988. Pizzi’s Carmen with Teresa Berganza staring scored an outstanding success at Bercy in May 1989.

Pier Luigi Pizzi, in the course of the artistic career, has contributed to the discovery for the stage of several less frequently played operas, such as Les Danaides by Salieri in 1990, and Poliuto by Donizetti (the Festival in Ravenna) as well as Buovo d’Antona by Tommaso Traetta at Teatro La Fenice in 1993, marking the bi-centennial of the demise of Goldoni.

Apart from staging some of the major works of the operatic history, Pizzi also pays attention to the contemporary repertory: he directed Stravinsky’s melodrama Perséphone at Nancy in 1987, and the world premiere of the opera Rapt de Perséphone by André Bon (libretto by Dominique Fernandez). Théâtre du Châtelet staged his direction of the opera Il cappello di paglia di Firenze by Nino Rota in 1988.

Pier Luigi Pizzi has continuously guest performed at the major world scenes with some new mises-en-scene. Britten’s Death in Venice at Carlo Felice Theatre in Genoa won the Frank Abbiati Prize for the best performance of the year. In 2003, he was commissioned by the Intendant of Teatro La Fenice in Venice to oversee the reconstruction of the theatre which had been damaged by the fire in 1986; Pizzi had staged here Massenet’s opera Thaïs, Les Pęcheurs de perles by Bizet, etc. On December 7, 2004, Pizzi inaugurated the theatrical season in the newly reconstructed La Scala in Milan with Salieri’s opera Europa riconosciuta, conducted by Riccardo Muti. In June 2005, he opened the operatic season at Arena di Verona with Ponchielli’s Gioconda, and in July of the same year, he staged Les Mamelles de Tirésias by Poulenc at the Sferisterio opera festival at Macerata, Italy, and the world first night of the opera Le bel indifférent by Marco Tutino. He became the artistic director of that festival in October 2005. He staged the opera A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Britten at Teatro Real in Madrid in January 2006.