Pier Luigi Pizzi at La Scala
by Vittoria Crespi Morbio, The Seducer
Appendices: biography; catalogue of works
Amici della Scala – Grafiche Step Editrice, Parma 2021
Italian – English edition, pp. 302
Looking back over the long, brilliant, multifaceted career of Pier Luigi!Pizzi (born 1930) means leafing through the annals of La Scala from 1957 to today.
His debut as a set and costume designer came with Rossini, Gianandrea Gavazzeni on the podium.
Following this, a series of productions that went down in history, gathering around recognisable focal points and contributing to the physiognomy of over half a century of theatrical culture: the modern audacity of Stravinsky’s Œdipus Rex, the visionary quality of a Wagner deeply rooted in the 19th -bourgeois, conceived together with Luca Ronconi ahead of Bayreuth, and above all the poetics of Baroque splendour culminating in productions such as Ariodante, Armide, and Rinaldo, for which Pizzi also acted as director.
From one end of the catalogue to the other, Pizzi’s long line of productions forms accomplished, highly personal theatre aesthetics that never fail to captivate.