Ezio Frigerio

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The tomb of the dancer Rudolf Nureyev, covered with a mosaic in the form of an oriental kilim carpet, was designed by Ezio Frigerio

Ezio Frigerio (born July 16, 1930 in Erba ( CO ), Italy ) is an Italian set and costume designer .

Frigerio studied architecture at the Politecnico in Milan , he also attended the Milan Academy of Fine Arts (Accademia delle belle arti). He initially devoted himself to painting, went to sea, was a commercial artist and book illustrator, before moving to theater equipment as an employee of Mario Chiari . In 1956 he designed the equipment for Giorgio Strehler's much-praised and decades-long production of Carlo Goldoni's The Servant of Two Masters at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan . From the late 1960s, Frigerio succeeded Luciano Damiani and became Strehler 's most important set designer. In 1966 he designed the stage for Strehler's interpretation of Luigi Pirandello's Die Riesen vom Berge , which was followed by numerous other joint works. Frigerio was also active internationally from the early 1970s, for example at the Burgtheater in Vienna or the Odéon in Paris .

With Giuseppe Verdi's Simon Boccanegra in Strehler's heavily acclaimed directing at La Scala in Milan , Frigerio worked for the first time in the field of opera in 1971 . Numerous other opera projects followed, above all at La Scala, but also at the Paris Palais Garnier , the Vienna State Opera , the New York Metropolitan Opera , the Royal Opera House in London and the Zurich Opera House .

Besides Strehler, Frigerio also worked with Klaus Michael Grüber , Gerhard Klingenberg , Rudolf Steinboeck , Piero Faggioni , Luca Ronconi , Nuria Espert , Roger Planchon , Eduardo De Filippo , Liliana Cavani , Werner Herzog ( Fidelio von Ludwig van Beethoven at La Scala in Milan) or Nicolas Joel .

Frigerio has worked repeatedly for the film, for example in 1976 for 1900 by Bernardo Bertolucci , in 1990 for Cyrano by Bergerac by Jean-Paul Rappeneau (for which he received the César for best equipment) or in 1996 for Der Unhold by Volker Schlöndorff

Frigerio designed ballet sets for the choreographers Rudolf Nurejew , Roland Petit , Marcia Haydée , Juri Grigorowitsch and Heinz Spoerli .

Frigerio has been working with Franca Squarciapino since the 1970s , who initially supported him as a costume assistant and later formed a team with Frigerio both professionally - as a costume designer - and privately - as his partner.

Frigerio's style is characterized by the fact that he took many approaches from Luciano Damiani and adapted them to his own intentions. In Frigerio, for example, the wooden floor of the Commedia dell'arte or the brightly lit horizon can be found again and again , albeit less brightly than in Damiani. In return, Frigerio tends more towards massive, precisely constructed stage structures, which often form a separate space in the first half of the stage, in order to then sometimes allow rear views of other landscapes. This was especially the case with Simon Boccanegra (where you could see a boat floating in the water in the background; the sails were raised when Boccanegra died), but also in 1978 with Vincenzo Bellini's Norma in Vienna (from the inside of the temple you could see a starry sky and the moon) or in 1980 at Georges Bizet's Carmen in Hamburg (a simple room, only changed by a few elements, with house facades behind it). Frigerio also repeatedly incorporates painted elements that are reminiscent of the Italian tradition of backdrop painting (as in Richard Strauss ' Der Rosenkavalier in Paris, to which he and the costume design gave it a dreamlike atmosphere).

As a costume designer, Frigerio attached great importance to the color and material qualities of the selected materials, which may then be further processed. The color choices of the costumes he created always fit into the stage space, they made use of realism, but were always equipped with a touch of artificiality that made them recognizable as a theatrical medium.

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personal data
SURNAME Frigerio, Ezio
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian set designer
DATE OF BIRTH July 16, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Erba , Italy