2023-08-25 00:15:13
Roberto De Simone turns 90 today. A central figure of the Italian theater and culture of the 20th century, he first embarked on a career as a pianist which he joined as a composer and musicologist, dedicating himself in particular to the popular traditions of the south. In 1967 he animates the creation of the Nuova Compagnia di Canto Popolare and it is precisely with this formation that he makes his debut at the Piccola Scala in 1972. In the following years he establishes himself as a director and Riccardo Muti calls him to open the 1986/87 season with Verdi’s ‘Nabucco’ . The scenes are by Mauro Carosi and Odette Nicoletti, interpreted by Renato Bruson and Ghena Dimitrova. The staging will be resumed at La Scala but also in Berlin and Tokyo.
The collaboration with Muti, Carosi and Nicoletti continued in 1989 with ‘Orfeo ed Euridice’ by Gluck and ‘Lo frate ‘nnamorato’ by Pergolesi and on the occasion of the inauguration of the 1990/1991 Season with ‘Idomeneo’ by Mozart. Not to forget the contribution of the sets by Micha van Hoeke. The architects themselves met on 7 December 1995 to stage Mozart’s ‘Die Zauberflöte’. De Simone will return to La Scala with two co-productions with the Teatro di San Carlo: the “Fantasy for Donizetti” Te voglio bene assaje created together with the choreographer Luciano Cannito in 1997 and ‘The Imaginary Socrate’ by Paisiello directed by Antonino Fogliani.
Among De Simone’s masterpieces there is certainly ‘La gatta Cenerentola’, which he himself wrote and set to music in 1976 for the San Ferdinando theater in Naples and which determined the popular success of the Neapolitan director and musician.
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