Curriculum Vitae

1. Studies and qualifications

Her childhood and adolescence were spent both in Italy and in the U.S.A. Up to the age of 18, she attended American schools in Palo Alto, Stanford and Berkeley, California, and in Boston, Massachusets, for about four months a year. For the remaining part of the year she returned to Italy and attended Italian schools in Florence, where she was born. In Florence she graduated from Liceo Classico Michelangelo, where she was given a classical education studying Latin and Greek. In the USA she graduated from Gunn High-School in Palo Alto, California.
In 1980-81 she attended drama and photography classes at Stanford.
In 1987 she was awarded a degree in Modern foreign languages and literature from the Faculty of Literature and Philosophy at the University of Florence, with full marks and honours. Between 1991 and 1993 she trained in Italy and qualified as an English teacher in State middle and secondary schools.

2. Languages

Italian: mother-tongue.

English: acquired as a second mother-tongue from early childhood.

French: Excellent knowledge of French language and culture (University studies, frequent trips to France).

Spanish: Competency as a result of frequent professional work in Spain

3. Music and Theatre

As a child she studied piano in Florence with Alba Maggini and later studied singing with Jolanda Meneguzzer and Suzanne Danco for five years. She sang in the choir at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole and with the Camerata Musicale. In 1983 she was awarded a Diploma in Musical Theory and Solfeggio from the Luigi Cherubini State Music Conservatory in Florence.
She participated in all the seminars and productions of the Progetto Mozart-Da Ponte in Fiesole with Claudio Desderi, first as an opera singer, then as assistant director to Andrea Di Bari in the production of Don Giovanni.
In 1990 she worked as assistant director to stage director and actress Carlina Torta, in the production of the play Casalinghitudine by the Panna Acida theatre company for the Todi Festival.
In the following year she took part in Carlina Torta's course on "Theatre writing and the making of the actor".
In 1991 she won second prize in the National Competition for Stage Directors run by the Laboratorio Teatrale of Alessandria (marks 9.75 out of 10) with a project on Mozart's Così fan tutte.
In the same year she was assistant director to Maestro Roberto Guicciardini in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro and Così fan tutte at the Teatro Verdi in Pisa, and she was responsible for the revival of both works in Modena (Teatro Comunale). Subsequently she worked as assistant stage-director to Fabio Sparvoli in Rossini's La Pietra del paragone (The Touchstone) at the Teatro Comunale in Modena and the Teatro Comunale in Ferrara.

In 1992 she was selected as head of the stage-director's office at the Teatro Verdi in Pisa, where she worked for six years with internationally acclaimed stage-directors such as Roberto Guicciardini, Micha van Hoecke, Patrizia Gracis, Ivo Guerra, Angelo Savelli, Stefano Vizioli, Franco Ripa di Meana, Josè Carlos Plaza and many others.

Other work in this period included stage-director, assistant-director or Language Coach for Italian or for English, with opera houses and festivals in both Italy and Europe: Teatro Comunale di Modena; Teatro Comunale di Ferrara; Teatro Verdi di Pisa; Teatro Rendano di Cosenza; Teatro Alighieri di Ravenna; Ravenna Festival; Teatro del Giglio di Lucca; Teatro Mascagni di Livorno; Teatro Sociale di Mantova; Teatri di Reggio Emilia; San Gimignano Summer Festival; Estate Fiesolana; Scuola di Musica of Fiesole; Britten-Pears Festival; Aldeburgh Foundation and Glyndebourne Festival in England; Teatro Regio di Torino, and others, being responsible for many stagings and revivals of performances such as Rossini's Cenerentola, the Mozart-Da Ponte triptych, Monteverdi's L’Incoronazione di Poppea and Orfeo, Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto, La Traviata, Falstaff, Macbeth, Donizetti's L’Elisir d'Amore, Bizet's Carmen.

As opera director, in 1996 she staged Pergolesi's La Serva Padrona, which was extremely successful and was performed in numerous theatres throughout Italy. In 1997 she directed The Telephone, or l'amour à trois by Giancarlo Menotti, performed in Matera with Claudio Desderi, as well as Biribù occhi di rana by Ludovico Rocca and The Schoolmaster by Georg Philipp Telemann for the Teatro Verdi in Pisa. Between 1998 and 2001, she staged Rossini's five one act operas Il Signor Bruschino, L'Occasione fa il Ladro, L'Inganno Felice, La Cambiale di Matrimonio, and La Scala di Seta, conducted by Claudio Desderi. These five operas were performed with exceptional success in numerous theatres throughout Italy. The stage-direction got great attention from Italian television (RAI sat, Prima della Prima) and was highly appreciated by Jérome Savary who created a special festival entitled "Tout Rossini" at the Opéra Comique in Paris, hosting these one act Rossini farces, for nine evenings, in February 2001. The controversy generated by this cycle has been compared to the famous Querelle that Carmen's premiere brought about at the Opéra Comique. After this amazing success she continued her career as stage-director with Mozart's Così fan tutte, Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Falstaff, La Traviata and Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi, La Rita by Donizetti, Un Segreto di Importanza by Sergio Rendine, Puccini's La Bohème and many others. For a complete and updated list of productions see home page.

4. Teaching Experience

She has taught English and English literature in numerous Italian state schools (Castelnuovo scientific studies secondary school in Florence, Gobetti scientific studies secondary school in Bagno a Ripoli, Saffi Institute, and others) and in the State Secondary Education Programme for inmates at the "Sollicciano" State Prison, near Florence.
In July 2010 she was invited as international expert, to give a course on Mozart scenes and roles at the prestigious Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme, in Aldeburgh, UK.
Currently she teaches opera direction and acting at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole and at the Music Conservatory in Teramo and she collaborates with Maestro Claudio Desderi at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole and at the Cesena Music Conservatory, where he holds his renowned Master Classes for singers.