Born in Roma in 1940, Marcello Panni studied piano, composition and conducting in his hometown, graduating from the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia, where he was a pupil of Goffredo Petrassi. He has been a pupil of Manuel Rosenthal at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris. He made his debut as a conductor in 1969 at La Biennale di Venezia with a concert dedicated to Petrassi’s compositions. Since then, he has pursued parallel careers as a composer, conductor and music organiser.
COMPOSER
From 1980 to 1984, he taught composition at Mills College in Oakland, California, holding the prestigious Milhaud Chair, previously held by John Cage and Luciano Berio, developing a close relationship with the young Californian composer John Adams, who strongly influenced his musical language since the 1990s. His recent compositions for orchestra include Trenodia, for viola and strings (Roma, 1991), Sinfonietta for chamber orchestra (Milano, 2001), Calatafimi! for voice and orchestra (Rai, Torino, 2008), Grande Suite from the opera Garibaldi en Sicile, (Roma, Quirinale, 2011), Le vesti della notte for voice and orchestra (commissioned by the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in 2014) , Zodiac for voice and orchestra (commissioned by the Orchestra della Toscana in 2015), Concerto per Violino e orchestra ‘dalla Terra del Rimorso’ for the orchestra Tito Schipa in Lecce (Lecce, 2014 ), Partita for orchestra (commisioned by the Teatro Petruzzelli in bari in 2023).
He composed the operas:
La partenza dell’Argonauta (Teatro La Pergola ,1976) based on Alberto Savinio’s short story , directed by Memé Perlini and Antonello Aglioti, commissioned by Maggio Musicale Fiorentino;
Hanjo (Teatro La Pergola,1994) based on a modern No by Yukio Mishima, directed by Bob Wilson, commissioned by Maggio Musicale Fiorentino;
Il Giudizio di Paride ( Bonn Theater 1996) libretto by the composer from the Dialogues of Lucian of Samosata, commissioned by the Bonn Opera, directed by Giancarlo del Monaco, with set design by Sandro Chia, revived at the Nice Opera, and in Italy at the Operaincanto festival in Terni directed by Marco Carniti. In 2018 new edition in Rome, Teatro Palladium, directed by Cesare Scarton.
The Banquet (Talking about Love), libretto by Kenneth Koch, commissioned by and performed at the Bremen Opera (1998), under the direction of Mouchtar Samorai, revived in Italy in 2001-2002 at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genova, at the Maggio Musicale in Firenze, and at the Teatro dell’Opera in Roma, where it was directed by Franco Ripa di Meana.
Garibaldi en Sicile (2005) opera in two acts, commissioned by Teatro San Carlo in Napoli, libretto by Kenneth Koch adapted from Les Garibaldiens by Alexandre Dumas father, scene by Luigi Ontani, semi-staged production directed by Elena Barbalich.
L’Asino magico di Tessaglia (2019) pantomime for mime actors, puppets and small orchestra commissioned by the Berliner Symphoniker, first performance in Berlin (“Der Magische Esel “), revived in the same year in an Italian premiere in Roma, Festival di Nuova Consonanza, directed by Fabrizio Lupo .
La Bicicletta di Bartali (2021), melologue for reciting voice, soprano and thirteen instrumentalists. Text by Simone Dini Gandini, commissioned by the Puccini Festival of Torre del Lago.
For the Cathedral of Nice in 2000, he wrote a Missa Brevis for children’s choir, wind ensemble and percussion, which was performed several times in Italy, Spain, France and Portugal; for the Cathedral of Milano in 2004, the motet for even-voice choir and orchestra Laudate Dominum; for the 2009 Spoleto Festival, he composed the two-part oratorio Apokàlypsis on a text from St. John by Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, for two actors, choir , wind and percussion orchestra, filmed by RAI 3 and broadcast twice (2010 and 2011) during Holy Week. Apokàlypsis was filmed in 2012 in the Cathedral in Monza in 2015 it was performed for the inauguration of the EXPO in Milano in the Church of San Marco, and recently broadcasted by Sky Classica, with a speech by Cardinal Ravasi, with choir and orchestra of the Verdi Orchestra of Milano, voices Chiara Muti and Elio de Capitani.
CONDUCTOR
From the end of the 1970s, he became a regular guest for symphonic concerts and operas of the leading Italian musical institutions (Orchestre RAI, Orchestre ICO, Santa Cecilia, Scala, Comunale di Bologna, Genova e Trieste, Teatro Massimo, and Sinfonica di Palermo, Petruzzelli, Opera di Roma, Regio di Torino, Biennale di Venezia) and the most important international opera houses, such as the Opéra in Paris, (Puccini’s Trittico, Elisir d’amore with Pavarotti), the Metropolitan in New York, (Elisir, Rigoletto, Lucia), the Bolshoj in Moscow (Macbeth), the Wiener Staatsoper (Lucia, Barbiere, Rigoletto, Elisir), the Bonn Opera (Manon, Fidelio), the Deutsche Oper in Berlin (Elisir), Festival de la Coruña (Norma, Butterfly, Don Pasquale, Puritani), Opernhaus Zürich (Macbeth, Tosca, Fille du Regiment), collaborating and recording with famous singers such as Luciano Pavarotti, Leo Nucci, Edita Gruberova, June Anderson .
He recently conducted the Berliner Symphoniker in Berlin , and was invited by symphonic orchestra in Buenos Aires, Bogota, Santiago
He conducted Italian and international contemporary works among which the world premiere of :
Neither by Morton Feldman at the Teatro dell’Opera in Roma (1976),
Cristallo di Rocca by Silvano Bussotti at the Teatro alla Scala in Milano (1983),
Civil Wars by Philip Glass at the Teatro dell’Opera in Roma (1984),
Patto di Sangue by Matteo d’Amico at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (2009).
He has currently quit conducting lyric operas but he is still conducting during occasional events such as the recent revival in Rome (IUC) of Maderna’s Hyperion for the composer’s centenary (2020), with the voice in absentiam of Carmelo Bene.
MUSIC ORGANIZER
In 1971, he founded the Ensemble Teatro-musica. With this formation he toured all over Europe, performing and recording works by Schnebel, Cage, Pennisi, Berio, Bussotti, Clementi, Donatoni and Feldman. In the same year, he performed Klangfarbenspiel, a musical pantomime, at the Piccola Scala in Milano, in collaboration with Piero Dorazio and Mario Ricci (1972), followed by La Partenza dell’Argonauta by Savinio at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, in collaboration with Memè Perlini and Antonello Aglioti,Teatro alla Pergola (1976).
During 1975 and 1976 he founded and conducted the Orchestra Giovanile Anton Webern cooperating with Luca Ronconi as part of the Venice Biennale, for the 30th anniversary of Webern’s death. He made use of international scholarships on this purpose, thus creating an international youth orchestra , first example in Italy, performing numerous concerts of Nuova Musica with Anton Webern’s compositions in Venezia, Padova, Milano, Como and Bolzano . He premiered works by Sciarrino and Feldman written for the Webern Orchestra as well as compositions by young composers such as Vacchi, Ferrero, Guarnieri and Carluccio.
In 1994, Marcello Panni was appointed Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Orchestra dei Pomeriggi Musicali in Milano and, almost simultaneously, Music Director of the Bonn Opera House. In September 1997 he was appointed as Music Director of the Nice Opera and Philharmonic Orchestra.
From 1999 to 2004 he was Artistic Director of the Accademia Filarmonica Romana.
In Autumn 2000, he was Artistic Director of the Teatro di San Carlo in Napoli for two seasons.
In 2003 he was appointed Accademico of Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.
From 2007 to 2009, he resumed the artistic direction of the Accademia Filarmonica Romana.
From 2008 to 2012 he was Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica ICO Tito Schipa in Lecce, with which he founded the Ensemble del Sud. With this group of soloists he toured extensively in Europe and Morocco.
From 2017 to 2019 he was Artistic Director of the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana.
DISCOGRAPHY
Marcello Panni has recorded numerous CDs of music of our time, including Berio’s Passaggio, Bussotti’s La Passion Selon Sade, Petrassi’s Estri and Serenata and several operas including Pergolesi’s Il Flaminio with Daniela Dessì, Orchestra of Teatro di San Carlo in Napoli, Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment, with Edita Gruberova, Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Omaggio a Verdi, wirh Fabio Armiliato, Phiilarmonic Orchestra of Nice, Rossini’s Semiramide, with Edita Gruberova, Bernadette Manca di Nissa, Diego Florez, Austrian Radio Orchestra.
Ema Vinci Records recently released the DVD of his opera Hanjo conducted by Carlo Boccadoro and directed by Cesare Scarton, and the CD of Giudizio di Paride conducted by Fabio Maestri.
Tactus released his historic recording of Bruno Maderna’s opera Hyperion with Carmelo Bene and the orchestra and choir of the RAI in Milano (1981).
For his 80th anniversary, Ema Vinci Records has released a CD of chamber works including the Grande suite from his opera Garibaldi en Sicile for an actor and five performers, with the voice of Elio de Capitani , conducted by Carlo Boccadoro, Ensemble Sentieri Selvaggi.
