Romeo Castellucci is author, director, light designer, stage and costume designer. He studied stage design and painting at the University of Fine Arts in Bologna and in 1981 together with Claudia Castellucci and Chiara Guidi founded the theater collective Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio. Castellucci’s works aim for an integral perception of the arts and are coined by strong visual and audio installations. His productions oftentimes are without any verbal dialogue and speak to the viewer on a prelingual, subconscious level. The profound human questions are most important to him, which to some extent can be unsettling and do not allow easy answers.
His works are regularly commissioned or invited by renown theaters, operas and festivals. Among his youngest work is ‘Democracy in America’ (2017), premiered at the Schaubühne Berlin, ‘Tannhäuser’ (2017) at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, Henze’s ‘Das Floß der Medusa’ at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam (2018), Richard Strauss’ ‘Salome’ at the Salzburg Festival (2018), Mozart’s ‘The Magic Flute’ at the La Monnaie in Brussels (2018), Scarlatti’s ‘Il primo homocidio’ at the Opéra Garnier Paris (2019) and Mozart’s Requiem at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence (2019).
Romeo Castellucci has been awarded the European theater prize ‘Europe Prize New Theatrical Realities’ (1998), among others, and was deputized Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French cultural minister in 2002. In 2008 he became Artist Associé of the Festival Avignon, in 2013 he was rewarded the golden lion at the Venice Biennale for his lifetime achievement and in 2014 he was bestowed the honorary doctoral degree in music and theater from the University of Bologna. In the critics' survey of the magazine ‘Opernwelt’, Romeo Castellucci was voted ‘Director of the Year’ and ‘Set Designer of the Year’ in 2019.
