Marco Betta is the new superintendent of the Fondazione Teatro Massimo di Palermo

Composer Marco Betta is the new superintendent of the Fondazione Teatro Massimo di Palermo. He was announced by the Foundation’s Steering Council, chaired by Mayor Leoluca Orlando, which unanimously appointed him after Francesco Giambrone took over the post at the Rome Opera House.

“In accepting the resignation of Superintendent Francesco Giambrone, who will go on to direct the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, I expressed my appreciation to him for having shared and accompanied the path of artistic and cultural revival of the city,” Orlando said. “The experience of the Teatro Massimo has been an example of education for beauty and a synthesis of ethics and aesthetics. Palermo is a city of rights, from this point of view the right to art and the right to culture has been experienced by the Teatro Massimo as a right of citizens but also as a duty of administrators. I thanked all those who have cooperated in this activity, in a complete structure, in a theater that has become one of the reasons for pride in our city. I expressed my best wishes to Superintendent Francesco Giambrone and presented him with the official medal of the City of Palermo with deep gratitude and admiration. I express my best wishes for good work to the new superintendent Marco Betta who will lead the theater in full continuity of professional commitment and artistic sensitivity.”

“I am truly grateful to the mayor, the Board of Directors, the Board of Auditors, and all the people who have supported me during these days when I have been traversed by a tangle of feelings and emotions,” commented Francesco Giambrone. “I believe that this theater and the whole great team of people who work here have come a long way over the years and have acquired over time the pride of being a factory of culture and a tool for the growth and cultural development of the community. To have received today the medal of the city of Palermo from the hands of the mayor was for me a moment of great emotion for my path, for the love I have for the city and for this theater and for the love I have received from the city and from the theater over all these years. To Marco Betta, a lifelong friend and extraordinary traveling companion in and out of the theater, I extend my most affectionate wishes to continue this journey and to further revitalize the Teatro Massimo with his skills and expertise.”

“It is a great honor to continue the path started by Francesco Giambrone and to be able to work in the wonderful Teatro Massimo,” added Marco Betta.

He has been artistic director of Palermo’s Teatro Massimo since 2020, called by Francesco Giambrone, who entrusted him with the task of reprogramming all artistic activities during the difficult months of the first Covid-19 emergency. He had previously served as artistic director of the Fondazione Teatro Massimo from 1994 to 2002, and in 1997 he was a key player in the reopening of the Teatro di Piazza Verdi, which had been closed and abandoned for twenty-three years.

He made his debut as a composer in 1982. His music is broadcast and performed in many countries in Europe, the United States, Canada, the former Soviet Union, Argentina and Brazil. In Italy he receives invitations and commissions from institutions and festivals such as Teatro alla Scala, Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Accademia Chigiana in Siena, Arena di Verona, Orchestra Sinfonica della RAI, and Orchestra Regionale della Toscana. In 1993 he participated with Lux aeterna in the Requiem for the victims of the Mafia at the invitation of Marco Tutino. Among his works are Magaria (2001), the fable for reciting voice and orchestra, in collaboration with Andrea Camilleri, and pieces for orchestra, including Concerto per arpa (1993), Lacrime (2004), Città azzurra (2005); in 2004 he collaborated with Placido Domingo, who performed his composition Corone di pietra aria for tenor, choir and orchestra on a text by Daniele Martino at the Arena of Verona, in mondovision. In 2005 he wrote the stage music for Ruggero Cappuccio’s play Paolo Borsellino essendo stato, and Roberto Andò’s opera for music and film Sette storie per lasciare il mondo. He later wrote Almanacco delle morti presunte on a text by Roberto Alajmo and Natura viva, a one-act opera on a text by Ruggero Cappuccio.

He has composed operas and musical theater works, as well as various soundtracks for Roberto Andò’s films, such as Il manoscritto del principe (2000), Viaggio segreto (2006) and Viva la libertà (2013) and for Aldo Moro il presidente (2008) by Gianluca Maria Tavarelli.

Ph.Credit Rosellina Garbo

Marco Betta is the new superintendent of the Fondazione Teatro Massimo di Palermo

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