franco
ripa di
meana

Franco Ripa di Meana

BIOGRAPHY

Born in Rome in 1962.

In 1984 he made his debut as an actor with the  La  Gaia Scienza theatre company at the Venice Biennale, directed by Giorgio Barberio Corsetti.  He left the company to work as a staff director, first at the Teatro la Scala in Milan (1987 to 1989), then in many of the leading italian and european opera houses and theatres. From 1990 to 2000 he collaborated with Luca Ronconi and Graham Vick, taking responsability for reviving  many of their productions.

 

He made his italian debut as director at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples in 1991, his european debut  at Wexford Festival Opera in 1998 with “La Fiamma” by Ottorino Respighi.  His productions have been presented at various opera houses, in Italy (Regio di Torino, Comunale di Firenze, Comunale di Bologna, Massimo di Palermo, Opera di  Roma, Caio Melisso di Spoleto, Valli di Reggio Emilia, Verdi di Parma, Verdi di Trieste ), and abroad (Wexford Festival Opera, City of Birmingham Touring Opera, Opera Zuid, Grazer Oper, ABAO Bilbao).

 

In october 2006 he made his debut at Teatro alla Scala, staging Ascanio in Alba by Mozart.

 

In 2009, he staged Tosca at the Caracalla Baths in Rome, and the whole Verdi’s “Trilogy” (Traviata, Rigoletto and Trovatore)  in  three subsequent evening for Teatro del Maggio Musicale in Florence.

 

In 2010 he made his debut at the National Center for Performing Arts in Beijing, the most important operatic venue in China, with Elisir d\'Amore, and staged Aida at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo. Both in 2011 and 2012 he opened the season of Teatro la Fenice in Venice, with Intolleranza 1960 by Luigi Nono, and Lou Salome by Giuseppe Sinopoli.

 

In 2013 his Traviata was presented in Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Shanghai; in 2014 he staged again Tosca, this time at the Sferisterio in Macerata. In 2015 he staged in Bologna  Der Gelbe Klang by Alessandro Solbiati, awarded with Premio Abbiati.

 

As producer, he founded and directed  the first opera touring company in Italy, OPERAOGGI. The company’s first production: “Carmen (se ti amo attento a te!)”, opened in 2006 and toured central Italy, scoring over forty performances in 5 different regions,  in a variety of venues such as open air theathres, squares, parks, theathres, a cave, a tobacco manifacture.

 

As librettist, he wrote for the composer Nicola Sani the libretto of the opera “Il tempo sospeso del volo”, entirely based on archives material dedicated to the life of the anti-mafia judge Giovanni Falcone, killed by the mafia with 400 kilograms of TNT. The work was premiered in Reggio Emilia in october 2007, a DVD of this production has been released for the home video circuit by the biggest italian distributor, Medusa Film.

 

He also wrote for the composer Marcello Panni Cell 27,  about the last days of Galeazzo Ciano, Mussolini son-in-law, and for the composer Enrico Melozzi Code Unknown and Rear Window.

 

He has been Dean of Set Design Department at the Accademia di Belle Arti of Carrara, has teached in IUAV University in Venice, Scuola dell\'Opera Italiana in Bologna, Accademia Albertina in Torino. He currently teaches at Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome. 

 

 

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