Domenico Franchi stage designer, costume designer and visual artist. Born in Brescia in 1968. He takes a diploma at the art school Foppa in Brescia in 1986. In 1991 he graduates in stage and costume design, under the guidance of Prof. Gastone Mariani, at the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera in Milan.
He starts working very young as assistant to the scenographer Tito Varisco. From 1998 since 2008 he is assistant to the scenographer Ezio Frigerio and works with him to the design of settings for the most important theatres and opera houses in the world. More than 30 titles have been elaborated for the great maestro; these include: Madama Butterfly, directed by Mario Gas, and Tosca, directed by Nuria Espert, for Teatro Real in Madrid; Othello directed by Graham Vick, Fidelio, directed by Werner Herzog and Carmen, directed by Nicolas Joel, for Teatro alla Scala in Milan; Un Ballo in Maschera, directed by Andrej Konchalovskij, for Teatro Regio in Parma; Hamlet, directed by Nicolas Joel, for Theatre du Chatelet in Paris; Der Ring des Nibelungen directed by Nicolas Joel, for Theatre du Capitole in Toulouse; revival of Coppelia choreographed by Roland Petit for the National Theatre in Tokio; Zio Vanja, directed by Roger Planchon, for TNP in Lyons.
Since 1992 till today he has signed stage and costumes of many operas, plays and contemporary dance perfomances. Among the most recent ones: The lost honor of Katharina Blum by Letizia Russo and I Miserabili by Doninelli da Hugo, all directed by Franco Però, Teatro Stabile del Friuli Venezia Giulia; The Merry Widow by Lehar, directed by Giorgio Madia, St. Petersburg State Theater of Musical Comedy; Les Liaisons Dangereuses, choreography by Giorgio Madia, Croatian National Theater Zagreb; Lo Schiavo di Gomes, directed by Davide Garattini Raimondi, Teatro Lirico di Cagliari; Shakespeare/sonetti, directed by Valter Malosti, Centro Teatrale Bresciano, Curamistrega, directed by Marco Ghelardi, Centro Teatrale Bresciano; Rigoletto di Verdi, regia di Paolo Bosisio, Grand Theater Lodz; Rossini's La cenerentola and Il Re Cervo by Angelo Inglese, both directed by Paolo Bosisio, for the Teatrul Musical Nae Leonard Galati; Il Piacere dell'Onestà by Pirandello, Il Secondo Figlio di Dio by Cristicchi/Rutelli, Passio Hominis and Finis Terrae by Clementi, all directed by Antonio Calenda, for various italian repertory theaters; Verdi's Rigoletto, directed Fabio Ceresa for the Opernhaus in Kiel, Verdi's Jerusalem, directed by Francisco Negrin, for the Opernhaus in Bonn, Mozart's Don Giovanni, directed by Paco Azorin for the Teatro Comunale in Sassari; Brimborium! by Montalbetti, in the first version directed by Robert Nemack for the Cantiere Internazionale d'Arte in Montepulciano and in the second version directed by Barbara di Lieto for Fondazione Teatro Grande in Brescia and I Teatri di Reggio Emilia; Verdi's Aida, directed by Ignacio Garcia for the Greek National Opera in Athens, Poliuto by Donizetti and Oberto Conte di San Bonifacio by Verdi, directed by Ignacio Garcia for Teatro Euskalduna in Bilbao; Kleist's Amphitryon, directed by Franco Ricordi for Teartro Stabile d'Abruzzo; Coefore by Aeschylus directed by Monica Conti for the Biennale Teatro in Venice; Le Onde del Mare e dell'Amore by Grillparzer, directed by Monica Conti for Centro Teatrale Bresciano; Massenet's Werther, directed by Arnaud Bernard for the 29th Festival della Valle d'Itria in Martina Franca; La Celestina by Nin-Culmelle, directed by Ignacio Garcia for Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid.
In 2009 he is awarded the International Prize Cinearti La Chioma di Berenice as best Italian theater costumes for the contemporary work Il Carro e i Canti by Alessandro Solbiati, directed by Ignacio Garcia, staged at the Teatro Verdi in Trieste.
In January 2020 the international magazine The Scenographer has published a monographic issue to his activity as set and costume designer.
From 2005 to 2016 he is professor and faculty coordinator of stage design at the Academy of Fine Arts Santa Giulia in Brescia. From 2010 to 2013 he is educator and coordinating teacher of the activities of MachinaImpresa, a project of Regione Lombardia Eccellente for practical education of young entrepreneurs in the field of Design, Fashion, Communication and Marketing
From 1995 to 2002 an intensive collaboration with the choreographer and dancer Giulia Gussago and the composer Mauro Montalbetti makes him develop an interest in experimentation with contemporary dance and music aimed at the contamination of expressive languages. In this period he elaborates installations and performances which investigate the potentiality of movement and the use of "dramaturgic" visual art in relation to dance and music; an example : TrasFormAzioni 3 which debuted at the Teatro Odeon in Lumezzane in 2001. In 2002 the art gallery AAB in Brescia stages a personal exhibition of his works, showing his intense research of these years. Since 2009 this collaboration has revived and has given birth to a video installation, To Be Soul, first study on infinity, presented as preview at the 10th edition of Danza/Parco in 2010.
In parallel with his activity for theatre and performances, he creates his contemporary art installations. As visual artist he uses various expressive techniques and in the last years he has approached the language of digital images and videos, through which he investigates the condition and the quality of human life. Among his site-specific installations and video works: Discorso alla Comunità, for Contexto Contemporary Area in Edolo; Perception, at Tempio Capitolino and Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo in Brescia, Universe, old Turkish bath of Sarajevo, created on the dramaturgy of Ignacio Garcia; Viola, at the Church of Santa Maria del Monte in Cagliari; Naturale/Innaturale for the International Festival of Contemporary Circus 2007, Pelle d'Uovo at the Italian Culture Institute in Madrid for the Noche en Blanco 2007; Sfogliando Fogli, at Villa Glisenti in Villa Carcina-Brescia; Cose che ho visto, presented for the first time at the Centro d'Arte LuPier in Gardone Valtrompia.
