Pier Francesco Maestrini is an Italian director with an impressive international career. He was born in Florence, where he studied humanities at the local university, as well as guitar and composition. He made his debut as an opera director with "The Barber of Seville" for the Japan Opera Foundation in Tokyo. Since then, he has directed more than one hundred productions, spanning from the Baroque to contemporary, for the most renowned Italian and international theaters, collaborating with internationally acclaimed artists.
He achieved great success directing "Tosca" in 2011 at the Municipal Theater of Santiago, Chile, and also staged "The Force of Destiny" and "The Elixir of Love" in a country-western version at the National Theater of Slovenia in Maribor, productions praised by both audiences and critics.
In 2010, he directed "Attila" at the Teatro Regio in Parma, entirely conceived for a virtual stage with CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) projections, consisting of a screen at the front of the stage and another at the back for rear projections, creating a 3D graphic simulation where the performers acted. This became the most successful production of the 2010 Verdi Festival and was reprised in Hong Kong in 2012.
In the same year, he conceived and executed a revolutionary production of "The Barber of Seville" for the Brazilian Opera Company, the first example of integration between opera and animation, where the singers originated from the cartoons and interacted with them, perfectly synchronized with a live performance by a symphony orchestra. This show was presented in 20 Brazilian cities.
In June 2010, he produced "Don Giovanni," associating the seducer's character with that of a vampire, a concept he brilliantly executed at the Teatro Vittorio Emanuele in Messina. The enthusiastic reaction of the audience resonated with local and national Italian critics. In 2010, he also directed productions of "Manon Lescaut" in Modena and "Lucia di Lammermoor" at the Avenches Festival in Switzerland and the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, where he also directed "La Sonnambula."
In September 2008, he directed "La Bohème" in Rio de Janeiro with a pictorial dramaturgy, featuring over 90 impressionist paintings projected as a living backdrop.
In September 2012, he directed "Otello," a work previously produced for the San Carlo di Napoli, this time with a new approach for the Verdi Festival in Parma, and in October, he revisited his seductive vampire concept in a production of "Don Giovanni" at the Municipal Theater of Santiago, Chile.
In 2013, he directed "Aida" in Zurich, "Cavalleria Rusticana" and "Don Giovanni" in São Paulo, and "The Force of Destiny" (whose staging at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow gained significant attention) in Liège, Belgium.
In 2014, his "Cavalleria" was restaged in São Paulo, he directed "The Barber of Seville" in Maribor, "Don Pasquale" at the National Centre of the Performing Arts in Beijing, "Aida" on tour in Japan, "La Bohème" for the Arena Foundation in Verona, "Manon Lescaut" for the Amazonas Opera Festival in Manaus and at the Teatro Sólis in Montevideo.
Pier Francesco Maestrini conducted masterclasses at Yale University (New Haven, USA) in 2007, at Showa (Tokyo) in 2001 and 2002, and at the Toscanini Foundry Academy in Parma in 2004.
Recently, he directed "Lo Schiavo" at the Municipal Theater of Rio de Janeiro, "Il Viaggio a Reims," a co-production between Kiel/Lübeck/Verona; "La Campana Sommersa" by O. Respighi in New York (New York City Opera); "Elisir d’amore" in Florence outdoors during the summer and at the Opera di Firenze in October 2017, "Turandot" by G. Puccini in Salerno, and "Tosca" at the Grand Theatre in Tours, France.
São Paulo, SP, Brazil
01311-000