STEFANO VIZIOLI 
In a career spanning more than forty years, Stefano Vizioli has staged around fifty opera productions in Italy and abroad. He has directed new productions for prestigious venues such as Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Rome Opera House, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Teatro Comunale di Firenze, Teatro Verdi in Trieste, Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Teatro Verdi in Pisa, Teatro San Carlo in Naples, La Fenice in Venice, the Ravenna Festival, Ferrara Musica, the Verdi Festival in Parma, and the Arena di Verona Foundation.  

Internationally, he has directed operas at Teatro São Carlos in Lisbon, Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège, Opéra Comique and Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris, Théâtre Municipal in Lausanne, Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg, Landestheater in Salzburg, Teatro Municipal in Santiago de Chile, Garsington Festival, Wexford Festival, Chorégies d’Orange, Teatro Calderón in Valladolid, Montpellier Opera, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Teatro Arriaga in Bilbao, Sainkt Gallen Opera, Teatro Campoamor in Oviedo, Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse, NCPA in Beijing, Macau Festival, Innsbruck Baroque Festival, Teatro La Maestranza in Seville, Teatro Sucre in Quito, Teatro São Pedro in São Paulo, Brazil.  

He has staged the first Italian performances of operas such as May Night by Rimsky-Korsakov, The Devil and Daniel Webster by Douglas Moore, and Casanova’s Homecoming by Dominick Argento. At the Bad Wildbad Festival he directed the first modern revival of I due Figaro by Michele Carafa, at Teatro São Carlos in Lisbon Motezuma by Antonio Vivaldi, and at Spoleto Festival USA La Veremonda by Francesco Cavalli. The latter production inspired the book The Veremonda Resurrection by Allison Zurfluh, published by GLI ORI, Turin.  

In 1999, he debuted in the United States, where he was invited by the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opera Philadelphia, Boston Lyric Opera, Baltimore Opera Theatre, Saint Louis Festival, Santa Fe Opera, and Spoleto Festival USA.  

He has served as a Visiting Professor at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Indiana University of Music in Bloomington, and El Paso University. Additionally, he has collaborated with institutions such as the Giorgio Cini Foundation in Venice, La Sapienza University of Rome, D’Annunzio University of Pescara, University of Pavia, University of Pisa, University of Bologna, University of Stavanger, Ca’ Foscari University in Venice, and the University of Geneva. Several theses have been written about his productions.  

In the spirit of cultural diplomacy, he has created cross-disciplinary projects with musician Aaron Carpenè, including Opera Bhutan—a production of Handel’s Acis and Galatea in the heart of the Himalayas, Japan Orfeo, a reinterpretation of Monteverdi’s masterpiece integrated with Nōh theatre, Gagaku orchestra, and Nihon Buyo dance, and Mozart at Angkor – A Cambodian Magic Flute, a fusion of Mozart’s work with Cambodian performing arts.  

He has collaborated with renowned conductors such as Claudio Abbado (Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Ferrara, 1995), Riccardo Muti (Don Pasquale at La Scala and Norma at Ravenna, 1994), Leonard Slatkin, Evgeny Svetlanov, Vladimir Jurowski, Bruno Bartoletti, Daniele Gatti, Jesús López Cobos, Alan Curtis, and Michele Mariotti.  

His productions have been recorded on numerous DVDs, including Don Pasquale (La Scala, Milan, 1994, and Cagliari, 2002), Luisa Miller (Malmö, 2012), Motezuma (Ferrara, 2008), Madama Butterfly (Puccini Festival, Torre del Lago, 2007), I due Figaro (Bad Wildbad, 2006), Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Parma, 2011), Rigoletto (Verdi Festival, Parma, 2008), Il Trovatore (Liège, 2009), and La Dori by Cesti (Innsbruck Baroque Festival, 2019).  

He has collaborated with renowned architects and artists for the visual design of his productions, including Aldo Rossi (Madama Butterfly), Luigi Veronesi (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Ugo Nespolo (L’elisir d’amore, Madama Butterfly, Veremonda, Italiana in Algeri), Gianni Dessì (Il cordovano), Renato Guttuso (Cavalleria Rusticana), and Milo Manara (Così fan tutte).  

In the realm of social initiatives and music outreach, he directed Giancarlo Menotti’s opera Amahl and the Night Visitors at Palermo’s Pagliarelli Prison.  

Stefano Vizioli served as Artistic Advisor at the Accademia Filarmonica Romana and was appointed an Academic Member of this prestigious institution in 1995. In 1999, he served as Artistic Director of ENEL PER L’ARTE’s concert season for the LUMINA, Churches of Tuscany project.  

From 2017 to 2020, he was Artistic Director at Teatro Verdi in Pisa. During this tenure, he adhered to the philosophy of offering the audience not what they want but what they don’t know they want. His bold and unconventional programming led to a 16% increase in subscriptions, especially among under-30 audiences, achieved through targeted communication campaigns.  

He has written radio and television programs on opera-related themes and conducts international workshops and masterclasses on operatic interpretation. He collaborates with RAI CULTURA and Channel 5 on operatic programming and live broadcasts from Italy’s major opera houses.  

In May 2024, RAI CULTURA aired a retrospective of his most significant productions. During the 2020 pandemic, he created two web programs, Alfabeto Lirico and Ekebù, both opera-focused and available on YouTube.  

Stefano Vizioli holds a diploma in piano with highest honors from the San Pietro a Majella Conservatory in Naples. He is also the co-author, with musicologist Olga Jesurum, of the book Suonare il palcoscenico: Conversations on Opera Direction with Stefano Vizioli, published by Artemide (IN SCENA series), Rome, 2024.  

Contact Information  
Mobile: +393485177174  
Website: www.stefanovizioli.it
Address: Largo Bernardino da Feltre 1, 00153 Rome Italy

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