Stefania Panighini is a stage director, and videographer, she studied at the National Academy of Dramatic Arts in Rome and she is graduated in Direction of Multimedia Show, at the Turin Conservatory. She is also graduated in Musicology at the Turin University.

She is professor of Performing Arts at the State Conservatory of Como and she collaborates with the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Academy, and the Teatro Pavarotti Academy in Modena. She writes several essays in musicology, including a study of Pelléas et Melisande for the Opera Comique (Paris), and makes also videoclip and documentaries. In 2024 she did a TedX speech in Turin about Opera and listening.

 

Recently she directed The rise and fall of the city of Mahagonny by Kurt Weill in Teatro Sociale of Como, Peter and the wolf with the Toscanini Orchestra, Der Kaiser von Atlantis for the Lerici Music Festival, L’elisir d’amore in Teatro Pavarotti Freni of Modena,  La Rondine by Puccini for Aslico, Maria de Buenos Aires by Astor Piazzolla in several theatres in Italy, Le songe d’une nuit d’été by A.Thomas for the Wexford Festival Opera and La Belle Hélène by Offenbach for Teatro Sociale Como. 

In the pandemic times she directs the video project Voyages for the Florentine Opera of Milwaukee, and she returns finally to the stage in april with a revival of Rinaldo by Handel in Tenerife.

The last seasons signs an important debut in Asia, with a production of La Traviata in coproduction between Daegu Opera Festival and Teatro delle Muse of Ancona. After that she continues a very involving project of Opera Giocosa in Savona, staging Don pasquale with young people under 18 and people over 65.

This project is started in 2018 with a powerful production of Il barbiere di Siviglia, staged with 30 students under 18, involved in the production as actors. In April of the same year she did a very colorful production of Hansel and Gretel in Tenerife with 1600 kids!

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Season 2017/2018 marks her american debut with La Traviata at the Dallas Opera, a new production of La Boheme at Luglio Musicale Trapanese, and a stunning  production of Rinaldo in Tenerife.

Productions of the last seasons includes the world premiere of Il labbro della Lady by Carlo Galante at Teatro Pavarotti in Modena, a Rinaldo by Handel in Tenerife. At the festival Luglio Musicale Trapanese she directs Madama Butterfly, she comes back to Teatro dell’Opera Giocosa with Nina ossia la pazza per amore by Paisiello and creates Orlando by Handel for the Theater an Der Wien.

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She has collaborated with Teatro Regio of Torino, Teatro Valli of Reggio Emilia, Teatro Comunale of Bologna, Teatro Pavarotti of Modena, Opéra National de Lorraine, Teatro Municipale of Piacenza, Fondazione Pergolesi Spontini, Wexford Opera Festival, Teatro Verdi of Sassari, Lugo Opera Festival, Teatro La Fenice of Venezia, Teatro Grande of Brescia, Festival de Opera in Tenerife, Opéra de Nice, Festival della Valle d'Itria, International Short Film Festival in Capalbio, Piccolo Festival del Friuli Venezia Giulia.

She has directed among others La voix humaine, Pomme d'Api and Monsieur Choufleuri restera chez lui, Le finte contesse ,Così fan tutte, Mirra Show Reel, Le nozze di Figaro, Color de Buenos Aires, Falstaff, Histoire du soldat, Peter and the Wolf, Der Schauspieldirektor, Dido & Aeneas, Gianni Schicchi, Suor Angelica, Lulu - Light’s refraction, Rigoletto, Il segreto di Susanna e Procedura Penale.

 

In the next season she will be in Wexford Opera Festival with Pagliacci and she will make her Canadian debut with Don Pasquale at the Calgary Opera.

 

In 2014 starts the Hoperance project about Opera/Dancetheater/Visualart focussing on baroque Handel Cantatas.

She plays also intense activity for a young audience; in 2009 she was Research Associate for the Turin Conservatory with the project Una musica da favola, directing La Boîte a Joujoux by Claude Debussy and André Hellé.