Francesco Micheli
Born in 1972 in Bergamo, with a degree in Modern Literature, Francesco Micheli graduated from the Paolo Grassi School of Dramatic Art in Milan. Francesco Micheli began working as assistant director for the Tuscan regional opera circuit, the Lombardy regional opera circuit and the Wexford Festival.
In 1997, he made his debut in opera directing with La Cantarina by Niccolò Piccinni staged for the Museo del Teatro alla Scala. In the same year, he began his collaboration with As.Li.Co. for the Opera Domani project, which led him to the production of operas by Gluck, Mozart and Massenet distributed at the Teatro Comunale in Florence and La Fenice in Venice.
He is the author of new innovative works, which lie between the concert and the performance: the desire is to give shape to a research opera theatre. This project leads to collaborations with various theatres: the Romolo Valli in Reggio Emilia produces W Verdi, the Teatro Sociale in Como Da Vivaldi a Pasolini and Da Verdi a Mina and for the Teatro Giacosa in Ivrea Diva is created.
He has directed numerous other operas: Le Nozze di Figaro for the Luglio Musicale Trapanese, Nabucco for the Lombardy regional circuit, Mozart and Salieri and Il piccolo Mozart for the Pomeriggi Musicali di Milano. At the Pergolesi Spontini Festival in 2008, he curated a new production of Gaspare Spontini's I Puntigli delle donne, the unreleased opera Tana a Candragopoli staged by the Festival di Montepulciano, and staged a multimedia event dedicated to Il Barbiere di Siviglia in Piazza del Popolo in Pesaro co-produced by the Rossini Opera Festival and Sky.
He wrote the libretto of the opera I musicanti di Brema and directed it at the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan. He then directed Silvano Sylvano, Sylvano Bussotti's last work for the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Il turco in Italia at the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, Il Barbiere di Siviglia and the new opera Alice nel paese delle meraviglie for which he wrote the libretto and directed the music by Giovanni d'Aquila at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo.
In 2009, the show Bianco, Rosso e Verdi, produced by the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, won the Abbiati Prize as Best initiative of the year
For many years he has been the author of an experimental opera review entitled Opera Off for the Reggio Emilia Theatres, during which performances, lectures, conferences and special television projects are presented, including Le ragazze della via Gluck (from Orfeo ed Euridice and the Iphigenia saga), Il mare (from Simon Boccanegra), Viva Verdi (from Nabucco to Ernani to Don Carlo), Shakespeare vs Verdi (based on Macbeth, Otello and Falstaff), Da Verdi a Mina (from Traviata and Trovatore).
He teaches Direction at the two-year specialisation course in Scenography at the Brera Academy and collaborates with the satellite network Sky Classica in the conception and conduction of opera-related programmes.
He is Artistic Director of the Sferisterio Opera Festival in Macerata, and was later appointed Artistic Director of the Donizetti Festival in Bergamo.
He staged Gounod's Roméo et Juliette at the Arena di Verona, which was a huge success with audiences and critics alike, so much so that the performance was staged in the following season.
He directed La Bohème at La Fenice in Venice, which was subsequently revived in April 2012 and February 2013. At La Fenice he opened the 2012/2013 season with a new production of Otello, which subsequently toured Japan in July 2013. He also directed Otello in the Courtyard of the Doge's Palace in Venice.
His most recent successes include A Midsummer Night's Dream with the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala in collaboration with the Teatro Elfo Puccini and the direction of Claudio Ambrosini's Il killer di parole based on a subject by Daniel Pennac, also staged at the Opéra Nationale Lorraine in Nancy. He will soon curate the text and staging of Cantiere Opera at the Teatro Niccolini in Florence, 12 lessons - show to discover the jewels of Italian opera, with Elio.
Among his recent and future commitments in opera theatre: Adriana Lecouvreur in Nice, Pagliacci in Sao Paulo, Candide in Florence, Semiramide in Halle, Il Barbiere di Siviglia in Athens and Bologna, Così fan tutte for As.Li.Co., Lucia di Lammermoor in Venice and Bordeaux, Aida in Macerata, Beijing and Bologna, Otello in Venice and Verona, La Bohème in Venice, Rigoletto, La Traviata and Il Trovatore in Florence, L'ange de Nisida, Medea in Corinth and L'ajo nell'imbarazzo, in Bergamo, Alcina in Glyndebourne
