Luca Ronconi

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Luca Ronconi (born 8 March 1933 in Sousse, Tunisia) is an Italian actor, theater director, and opera director.

[edit] Biography

After growing up in Tunisia, where his mother was a school teacher, he graduated from the Academy of Dramatic Art in Rome in 1953. He acted in productions of Luigi Squarzina, Orazio Costa, Michelangelo Antonioni, and others. In 1963 he directed his first play and since then has worked almost exclusively as a director.

Ronconi is considered one of Europe's most influential theatrical directors. He has worked for renowned companies, such as the Burgtheater in Vienna (The Bacchae by Euripides, 1973; The Birds by Aristophanes, 1975; The Oresteia by Aeschylus, 1976), La Scala in Milan (Die Walküre by Wagner, 1974; Don Carlos by Verdi, 1978; Les Troyens by Berlioz, 1980), the Vienna State Opera (Il viaggio a Reims by Rossini, 1988), the Rossini Festival in Pesaro, and the Salzburg Festival (Die Riesen vom Berge (I giganti della montagna) by Luigi Pirandello, 1994; Don Giovanni by Mozart, 1999).

Ronconi collaborated with important stage designers, among them Pier Luigi Pizzi (The Bacchae, Die Walküre), Luciano Damiani (The Birds, The Oresteia, Don Carlos), Ezio Frigerio (Les Troyens). He also inspired the architect Gae Aulenti to design the stage for some of his productions (for example Il viaggio a Reims). Fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld created the costumes for some of Ronconi's stagings (for example, Les Troyens).