Giorgio Battistelli received a diploma in musical composition, aesthetics, and history from the Conservatorio statale di Musica Alfredo Casella in 1978. Six years earlier, he and some friends had founded the Edgard Varèse improvisation group, as well as the instrumental ensemble Beat ’72. In 1975, he attended Karlheinz Stockhausen’s and Mauricio Kagel’s composition seminars in Cologne. Battistelli continued his studies in Paris, where he took lessons from Gaston Sylvestre and Jean-Pierre Drouet in contemporary musical theater technique and performance in 1978 and 1979. This experience marked the beginning of his interest in musical theater.

Battistelli established strong links to German musical life, helped by a work grant at the SWR broadcasting center in Baden-Baden in 1983 followed by a residence at the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst from 1985 to 1986. Several German institutions commissioned important pieces from him, such as the Theater Bremen, the Nationaltheater Mannheim, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, the State Opera of Hannover, the Munich Biennale, and the Ensemble Modern. In the 2000s, other institutions followed suit, including the Flemish Opera in Antwerp (2005-2006), the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Dusseldorf (2007-2008), and the Teatro San Carlo in Naples (2012).

Battistelli became an artistic director early on in his career. He worked successively in various Italian institutions, including the Fondazione Cantiere Internazionale d’Arte in Montepulciano where he took Hans Werner Henze’s position from 1985 to 1996, the Orchestra della Toscana (1996-2002, then from 2011 until present), the Società Aquilana dei Concerti (2000-2005, becoming president in 2009), the Accademia Filarmonica Romana (2005-2007), the Biennale Musica in Venice (2004-2007), the Fondazione Arena di Verona (2006-2007), the Festival Puccini (since 2020), and the Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano and Trente (since 2021). During his tenure at the Orchestra della Toscana, he collaborated with Luciano Berio’s Centro Tempo Reale in Florence and the University of Padova’s Centro di Sonologia Computazionale, where he worked with Alvise Vidolin.

Battistelli has been a faculty member at Santa Cecilia in Rome since 2004. From 2006 to 2007, he taught musical theater at the Jerwood Opera Writing Fellowships in Aldeburgh and the musical theater masterclass “Progetto Opera” at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena in 2012.

Battistelli explores musical theater throughout his catalog, in pieces such as Experimentum Mundi (1981), The Cenci (1997) inspired by Antonin Artaud, the ballet Il fiore delle mille e una note (1999) inspired by Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Richard III (2004), alongside purely instrumental pieces. In his work, Battistelli “explores the whole range of the dramaturgy of instrumental sound, conceiving his works for a certain number of characters embodied in rhythmic and melodic figures, sections for orchestra or solo instruments.”¹ He also focuses on extending the classical conception of an instrumentalist, as illustrated by the opera Experimentum Mundi, in which sixteen artisans play the role of percussionists with the music incorporating the rhythm of their daily activity.

Battistelli’s works have been published by Ricordi since 1986.

Prizes and Awards

• Venice Biennale Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, 2022
• Commendatore dell'Ordine al merito della Repubblica Italiana, 2013
• Herald Angel Award, awarded by Scottish music critics for Experimentum Mundi, 2009
• Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, French Ministry of Culture, 2003
• Cervo award for contemporary music, 1993
• SIAE Award for opera, 1990

^{1. Page on Giorgio Battistelli, Centre de documentation de la musique contemporaine. ↩}