Mario Martone Director

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Biography

Born in Naples in 1959, Mario Martone is an Italian director, scriptwriter and producer. During the nineties, he was associated with the new wave of Neapolitan cinema alongside such figures as Antonio Capuano, Pappi Corsicato, Toni Servillo and Paolo Sorrentino. Films like Teatro di Guerra, or the historical fresco Noi credevamo explore the place of violence and art in society. This director has developed a highly personal discourse on Italy focusing on figures like Renato Caccioppoli, the Neapolitan Mathematician who committed suicide, with Morte di un matematico napoletano; or the Romantic poet and philosopher, Giacomo Leopardi, a forerunner of existensialism, with Leopardi il Giovane Favoloso (2014), which featured at the 71st edition of the Venice International Film Festival.

Mario Martone is also involved in theatre. After seeing a performance of Bob Wilson’s Einstein on the Beach in 1979, he decided to form his first theatre company, Falso Movimento, with Andrea Renzi. In 1986, Mario Martone’s company merged with the Teatro dei Mutamenti company directed by Antonio Neiwiller and Toni Servillo’s Teatro Studio de Caserte, which led to the creation of the collective, Teatri Uniti, whose productions have breathed new life into Italian theatre and met with international success. Their production of Carlo Goldoni’s Trilogia della villeggiature, a co-production with Piccolo Teatro in Milan, is just one example. The artists of Teatri Uniti have also worked with important musical institutions like La Fenice in Venice, Sao Carlos in Lisbonne and San Carlo in Naples.

Mario Martone made his debut as an opera director in 1989 with the world premier of Charlotte Corday by Lorenzo Ferrero, conducted by Roberto Abbado, a commission from the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome commemorating the bicentenary of the French Revolution. During the 2010-11 Season at La Scala Milan, he directed Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci conducted by Daniel Harding and Falstaff at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris. In 2012, He made his debut at the New National Theatre of Tokyo with Otello, directed Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda in Rome, Matilde di Shabran at the Rossini Festival in Pesaro and renewed his collaboration with Roberto Abbado for a production of Don Giovanni at the Fondation Petruzzelli in Bari. He made his debut at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège during the 2013-14 Season with Fidelio under the musical direction of Paolo Arrivabeni. During the 2015-16 Season he is directing Macbeth at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and his production of La Nozze di Figaro has been touring Italy. He will make his Paris Opera debut this season with a new production juxtaposing Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Sancta Susana by Paul Hindemith.

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