Cristiano Bacchi, Architetto

He was born in Ravenna, Italy, in 1960 and completed a degree in architecture at the University of Florence in 1986. In 1983 he set up an association with Pier Luigi Pizzi, in which for over a period of ten years he collaborated with major Italian and European theatres and Festivals (the Scala theatre in Milan, the Fenice theatre in Venice, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the municipal theatre of Bologna, the municipal theatre of Reggio Emilia, the Opéra-Bastille, Chatelet, the Aix-en-Provence Festival, the Opéra of Montecarlo, the Opéra of Nancy, the Staatsoper in Vienna, the Ravenna Festival) on thirty prestigious opera productions; Bacchi also contributed, as Pier Luigi Pizzi's assistant, to the design of two important exhibitions (Grand Palais and Versailles). He has also collaborated assidously with the set designer Maurizio Balò. Bacchi began his career as set designer in 1988 with Simon Boccanegra at the Sperimentale in Spoleto (produced by Giancarlo Cobelli). In 1992 he designed the sets for Cinderella by Proko'ev for the municipal theatre in Florence (Choreografy by Evgeni Polyakov, later reproduced at the Roman theatre in Fiesole in the summer 1994). The following year at the Ravenna Festival, he collaborated on the mise-en scène of Federico Tiezzi's version of Dante Alighieri's Paradiso in the basilica of San Vitale, and, in the same year received a commision from Riccardo Muti to design the acustics chamber for the Alighieri theatre in Ravenna. During the summer of 1984 he began an association with the choreographer Mischa van Hoecke as designer of both sets and costumes for the dance-theatre production of il violino di Rotschild (Rothschild's violin by Cechov, music by Schinittke) for the Castiglioncello Festival which was later reproduced at the Teatro Lirico in Milan. Under the auspices of the Ravenna festival 1995 Bacchi produced the sets for Monteverdi' s Orfeo (staged by Mischa van Hoecke, reproduced at the teatro Verdi in Pisa) and for the ballet Odissea Blu (music by Rimskij-Korsakov, coreography by Misca van Hoecke). In July of the same year he prepared the scenes for Il Fortunato Inganno by Donizetti (Vadstena Festival, Sweden, produced by Lorenzo Mariani) and in December his production of Carmina Burana by Orff debuted at the Teatro Verdi in Pisa (coreography by Micha van Hoecke). In the spring of 1996, he realized Botero's sketches for La Fille du Régiment by Dinizetti (a cooproduction with Opéra Montecarlo and Deutsche Oper am Rhein of Dusseldorf and Grand Theatre de Genéve; reproduced at Ente Lirico Teatro di Roma, Festival of Santander, Teatro la Zarzuela of Madrid, Theatre du Strasbourg). In September 2000 always at Teatro Lirico?Sperimentale, Spoleto, he realizes the sets for Oberto Conte di San Bonifacio (direction Peter Wirsch). In November of 2000 Bacchi debuted in the direction (he did sets too) of Verdi's Ernani (a cooproducton between Ravenna Festival, Teatro of Livorno, Fundacion Festival de Opera de Oviedo, reproduced at the Theatre of Malaga. In February 2003 he did the sets for Cenerentola by Rossini, staged by Paolo Panizza (a cooproduction beetwen Teatro of Treviso and Teatro la Fenice of Venice, direction Paolo Panizza). In 2008 he did sets for Gioconda, a cooproduction between Teatro di Livorno and National Opera Theatre of Athens. Since 2008 he is involved in contemporary dance collaborating with the coreographer Michela Minguzzi in the solo dance called “Unbalance” fo Ravenna Festival. In 2009 it is his début as movie director in the short film “Teodorico, the story and the legend”. Bacchi also works intensively as an architect in the field of interior design, 3D graphics and achitecture.