Journalist, music critic. A graduate of the Paris Sorbonne’s musicology department. He has been working as a journalist since 1975, collaborating with many music magazines in France and elsewhere. He was a critic with Le Matin de Paris in 1977-80, and editor-in-chief of Opera International in 1979-2003; he has also worked as a radio producer at radio stations in France (France Musique, France Culture, France Inter), Switzerland and Italy (RAI). He has written many books on opera and opera singers, including Maria Callas (translated into English, Spanish and Japanese), Ruggero Raimondi, Teresa Berganza, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Meyerbeer, Divas: “Parcours d’un mythe”, La Scala, Agenda Rossini, Lucia Valentini-Terrani. He is also the co-author of many collective works, including L’année de l’opera et de la danse (1978, 1979), Le guide pratique de la musique, Les grandes dates du festival d’Aix, and Agenda du bicentenaire Mozart.
   
   He is often invited to be a judge at international vocal competitions in Spain, Italy, France, Bulgaria, Germany as well as Poland, where he has been a judge at previous editions of the International Stanisław Moniuszko Vocal Competition. He was appointed artistic director of the Martina Franca Festival in 1994. He is also a teacher – in 1990-92 he lectured at the Rossini Academy in Pesaro, and since 1993 has been with the Accademia d’Arte Lirica e Corale in Osimo, where he was the music director for several years, and then the artistic director. He was appointed artistic director of the rebuilt Teatro La Fenice in Venice in 2003, a post he held for three seasons. He has received numerous awards, including the Illic Award, the Campus Award, and has also received the French title of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.

 

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