Biography
Cesare Scarton studied opera and theatre stage direction at the Music Conservatory “Santa Cecilia” in Rome. He also graduated in Disciplines of Music and Performing arts at the University of Bologna.
He teaches high level courses and co-ordinates as well the activities of the “Opera Studio”, a project of excellence and high education in opera singing of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome.
He is a member of the scientific committee of the Rossini Foundation in Pesaro, as well as the director of the book series collections “Iconografia rossiniana”, “I libretti di Rossini”, “Saggi e Fonti”.
He collaborated in the management and production of important international artistic events (music, dance, theatre) such as the Sagra Musicale Umbra, the Panatenee (Pompei, Agrigento, Capri), the Verdi Festival in Parma and the Reate Festival of Rieti, of which he took the direction in 2012.
He has directed, among other things, Il matrimonio segreto by Domenico Cimarosa, Chi rapì la topina Costanza? by Roberta Vacca, Lo scoiattolo in gamba by Nino Rota, Così fan tutte by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, The cunning little vixen by Leoš Janáček, L’heure espagnole by Maurice Ravel, Gianni Schicchi by Giacomo Puccini (productions realized by the National Academy of Santa Cecilia, Parco della Musica, Rome and recorded in dvd by Infocamere), The little sweep by Benjamin Britten, Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell, Il libro dei reclami by Luciano Chailly, L’impresario in angustie by Domenico Cimarosa (L’Aquila Municipal Theatre), Il re pastore by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Nina ossia la pazza per amore by Giovanni Paisiello (Festival le notti di Villa Mondragone, Teatro delle Acque), Suor Angelica by Giacomo Puccini (Rendano Theatre, Cosenza), Il filosofo di campagna by Baldassare Galuppi and Le due gemelle by Niccolò Piccinni (Festival Arte in Canto), Caldo Disio by various authors (Lisbona, Culturgest, world première), Il campanello by Gaetano Donizetti and Adina by Gioachino Rossini (Reate Festival, Flavio Vespasiano Theatre, Rieti), La serva padrona by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (Roma, Vilnius, Riga, Tallinn, Kiev, Budapest), Otto von Kitsch by Roberta Vacca and Boletus by Carlo Boccadoro (Opera In Canto, Sergio Tecci Theatre, Terni, world premières), L’elisir d’amore by Gaetano Donizetti and L’Italiana in Algeri by Gioachino Rossini (Marrucino Theatre, Chieti), Brundibár by Hans Krása (Teatro dell’Opera, Rome 2013, retake 2014), the diptych Donna, serva della mia casa, including Fadwa by Dimitri Scarlato and La stanza di Lena by Daniele Carnini (Accademia Filarmonica Romana, Teatro Olimpico, Roma, world premières).
He has staged Anna Bolena by Gaetano Donizetti with Fabio Biondi and Europa Galante, production recorded in dvd by Dynamic and broadcasted by Sky Classic, as well as Un giorno di regno by Giuseppe Verdi, project financed by the National Committee for the bi-centennial of Giuseppe Verdi’s birth, recorded by Tactus.
He has curated the dramaturgy of La Traviata between Verdi and Dumas, narrated by Renata Scotto and recited by Milena Vukotić, (Parco della Musica, Rome).
As and expert in singing and voice performance, and he has also devoted himself to the melodrama and contributed to rediscover and appraise this genre through concerts, lectures, workshops, radio broadcasting programmes and theatre performances with the collaboration of renowned actresses such as Anna Proclemer, Sonia Bergamasco and Milena Vukotić.
For Anna Proclemer, he has written and staged the monologue Anna dei Pianoforti by Alberto Savinio, which has been performed, among other, in Rome (Teatro Argentina), Milan (Piccolo Teatro), Florence (Teatro della Pergola, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino), Palermo (Teatro Biondo), Bellinzona (Teatro Sociale) as well as at the Italian Cultural Institutes in Munich and London. The work has also been broadcasted by Rai Radio Tre and by Radio Svizzera Italiana.
He is in charge of the correct Italian diction at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, where he has also participated in important productions, such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Don Giovanni, conducted by Kent Nagano; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Mitridate re di Ponto, conducted by Ivor Bolton; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, La clemenza di Tito, conducted by Kirill Petrenko; Claudio Monteverdi, L’Orfeo, conducted by Ivor Bolton. He was also in charge of the Italian diction at the National Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome for the production of Tancredi by Gioachino Rossini, conducted by René Jacobs as well as for Gioachino Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims, conducted by Kent Nagano.
He delivered lectures in relevant institutions, such as Fondazione Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, Universities of Rome and L’Aquila, Rossini Foundation in Pesaro, Teatro Tascabile of Bergamo, Music Conservatories of Bari and Trent, as well as master classes at the Universities of Graz (Austria), Varna and Sofia (Bulgaria), Vilnius (Lithuania), Riga (Latvia), Tallinn (Estonia), Kiev (Ukraine), Budapest (Hungary).
He teaches Theory and Technique of stage and performing interpretation at the Music Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in Rome.
Among his publications: Il melologo: una ricerca tra recitazione e musica, Città di Castello, Edimond, 1998, with an introduction by Giovanni Carli Ballola; Verdi e l’Ottocento europeo, Parma, Comitato Nazionale per le Celebrazione Verdiane, 1999-2000; Verdi Festival 2001 Parma. Un anno di spettacoli, Parma Grafiche Step, 2001; Otello. Un percorso iconografico da Shakespeare a Rossini, Pesaro, Fondazione Rossini, 2003.
