DOMENICO FRANCHI
Set and costume designer, visual artist. Born in Brescia on March 15, 1968. Graduate in set design at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan in 1991.
For about ten years he collaborated with the set designer Ezio Frigerio and with the Oscar-winning costume designer Franca Squarciapino. In this period he has made over 30 projects for productions destined for major international opera houses, we recall a few: Theater du Chatelet Paris Halmet directed by Nicolas Joel; Teatro alla Scala Milano Otello directed by Graham Vick, Fidelio directed by Werner Herzog; Theater du Capitole Toulouse Ring des Nibelungen directed by Nicolas Joel, Teatro Regio Parma Un ballo in maschera directed by Andrej Konchalovskij; Teatro Real Madrid Madama Butterfly directed by Mario Gas, Tosca directed by Nuria Espert: National Theater Tokyo Coppelia choreography by Roland Petit.
Since 1992 he has signed sets and costumes for many opera, drama, ballet and contemporary dance productions collaborating with important cultural institutions including: NCPA National Centre for the Performing Arts Beijing, Abao Bilbao Opera, Teatro Massimo di Palermo, Korea National Opera Seoul, La Biennale Teatro Venice, Greek National Opera, Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège, Japan Opera Foundation Tokyo, Sarajevo Theater Festival, Bayreuth Baroque Opera Festival, Cantiere Internazionale d’arte of Montepulciano, Innsbrucker Festwochen del Alte Musik, Teatro de la Zarzuela Madrid, Teatro Verdi Trieste, Arena of Verona Foundation, Teatro Lìrico of Cagliari, Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci, Moravian Ballet Theater Olomouc, Opera Krakowska, Teatro Stabile del Friuli Venezia Giulia, Vanemuine National Theater Tartu, Centro Teatrale Bresciano, Palazzo Reale Milano, Theater Bonn, Opernhaus Kiel, Teatro Municipale Piacenza, Grand Theatre Lodz, Teatro Stabile di Catania, I Teatri of Reggio Emilia, National Theater of Zagreb, State Theater of Musical Comedy of St. Petersburg, National Opera Cluj-Nepoca, Center dramatique national Nanterre-Amandiers Paris.
Her recent works include: Die Fledermaus by Strauss, Rita by Donizetti, La Traviata by Verdi directed by Vincent Boussard; Dido Konigin von Kartago by Graupner, Adriano in Siria by Graun, Il Trovatore by Verdi, directed by Deda Cristina Colonna; Otello by Verdi directed by Italo Nunziata; Die Csárdásfürstin by Kálmán/Stein, Tosca by Puccini, Aida by Verdi, The Nutcracker by Cajkovskij, Liaisons Dangereuses, The Merry Widow by Lehar and Coppelia by Delibes directed and choreographed by Giorgio Madia; Else by Gardella, directed by Cecilia Ligorio; La Figlia di Iorio by Franchetti, Il Prigioniero by Dallapiccola, La Voix Humaine by Poulenc, Faust by Gounod, Le Dernier Sorcier by Viardot, Lo schiavo by Gomes, Ernani by Verdi, directed by Davide Garattini Raimondi; Alessandro nell’Indie by Vinci directed by Max Emanuel Cecic; Jerusalem by Verdi, directed by Francisco Negrin; Swan Lake by Cajkovskij choreography by Paul Adam Chalmer; Orfeo ed Euridice by Gluck, Viaggio musicale all’Inferno by Facchinetti directed by Danilo Rubeca; Don Giovanni by Mozart, directed by Paco Azorin; Don Giovanni by Mozart, Il Re Cervo by Inglese, La Cenerentola by Rossini, Rigoletto by Verdi, Turandot by Puccini, Les pecheurs de perles by Bizet, directed by Paolo Bosisio; Passio Hominis, Finis Terrae, The pleasure of honesty by Pirandello directed by Antonio Calenda; Brimborium! by Mauro Montalbetti, directed by Robert Nemack and Barbara di Lieto; Verdi's Aida, Poliuto by Donizetti, La Celestina by Nin-Culmelle, Il Carro e i Canti by Solbiati directed by Ignacio Garcia; Kleist's Anfitrione directed by Franco Ricordi; The Intellectuals by Moliere, Jackie by Jelinek and Coefore by Eschilo directed by Monica Conti; Werther by Massenet, directed by Arnaud Bernard, Rigoletto by Verdi directed by Fabio Ceresa; Cuore and Poil de carotte directed by Silvia Costa, The Miserables, The Lost Honor by Katharina Blum and La Pazza di Chaillot, directed by Franco Però; Shakespeare/ sonnets directed by Valter Malosti; Il caso Kaufmann by Grasso directed by Piero Maccarinelli.
In 2009 he was awarded the international film prize La Chioma di Berenice for the best Italian theatrical costumes, for Il Carro e i Canti by Alessandro Solbiati and directed by Ignacio Garcia.
As a visual artist he has created numerous site specific installations and performance where he investigates the relationship between various expressive languages. His research of “contamination” with contemporary dance and music developed in intense years of work with the choreographer and dancer Giulia Gussago, the composer Mauro Montalbetti and the light designer Stefano Mazzanti is significant.
From 2005 to 2016 he held professor of scenography and coordinator of the same department at the Academy of Fine Arts Santa Giulia in Brescia.
