Giorgio Battistelli

Biography

Giorgio Battistelli (born 25 April 1953, Albano Laziale, Italy) is an Italian composer of contemporary classical music.

Early life and education

Giorgio Battistelli studied at the conservatory in L'Aquila, and is a former student of Stockhausen and Kagel.

Career

By 2009, Battistelli had written nearly 20 operas, on subjects ranging from Diderot and d'Alembert's Encyclopaedia to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
From 1985 to 1986 he was host of the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst in Berlin. In 1994 he co-founded an improvisation group called Edgard Varèse, and an instrumental ensemble named Beat '72.
In October 2009, his opera Miracle in Brisbane was performed for the Brisbane Festival in Brisbane, Australia, directed by Rhoda Roberts and starring an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cast, including Aaron Fa'aoso, Deborah Mailman, Djakapurra Munyarrayan, and Casey Donovan.
In November 2009 he was artistic director of the Jerwood Opera Writing Programme hosted by Aldeburgh Music in England.
His opera CO2, based on Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, premiered at La Scala opera house in Milan in 2015.
Battistelli's opera Wake was premiered by the Birmingham Opera Company in March 2018 and is inspired by the story of Lazarus being brought back from the dead.
He was artistic director of the Cantiere Internazionale d'Arte di Montepulciano, the Orchestra Regionale Toscana.
He has been director of the music section of the Venice Biennale.
His music is published by Ricordi and recordings available on Stradivarius.

Recognition and awards

In 1990 Battistelli won the SIAE award for an opera, and in 1993 the Cervo Prize for contemporary music.
He was awarded the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic on 27 December 2020.