Alessio Pizzech was born in Livorno, Italy.  Since his childhood he dedicates himself to singing, then working in a circus until the age of 18 and then, through theatre, he very fast becomes "one of the most important Italian stage directors".  In a very young age he has already directed in almost all important opera stages of Italy and many international ones, too.
For detailed biography click HERE
Rosignano Solvay (Livorno), 11/05/2020
Alessio Pizzech is a director whose combination of artistic background is kind of rare: Singing, circus, theatre- and in this order.  In fact, many years ago, when I met Alessio on stage as my director, I noticed a very special energy in his gaze-  a gaze which seemed a bit "old" for his young age-  which reminded me of the professional circus clowns of another era: He is a unique mixture of a hidden melancholy, a rough "cunning" (shadow) of a smile, a man who has an almost strict sense of discipline, all "blended" with an almost "primitive" vitality and a big, open heart.  His work is sensitive, as is his approach to the artists he works with.  His way of directing is a "democratic experience".  I would describe it as almost a "philosophical experience", for he makes you look to the direction he is pointing at, by "stimulating" your emotions and your thoughts through his presence, like some kind of a... magnet. 
By @kassandra_dimopoulou_official
Singing, circus, theatre, opera.  If I could make a guess, your “magic” word is: “circus” (=a ring, or a circle).  Does this circle surrounds all the other words?
Yes, the circle of life, of my life that has been changed, of art that has changed me.  The circle of the stories that have transformed me, of the different artistic languages that through them, I have given voice and body to my soul.  The circle of the possibilities to be in this world and to live together with other human beings and to feel alive.  The circle that permits me to be happy in this world and to recognize my humanity by looking into other people.


What does it mean, “to direct”?
Directing means to make sense, to make the right questions, to create a dialogue between the interprets and their material and between themselves.  Directing means to exit, to give birth to the truth, to help a creative journey and to accompany all the signs of the stage towards a polyphony of harmonic voices.  It also means to create an artistic community and then one between them and the public, in which everyone will acknowledge in the same moment the story happening on stage, as a true one, under the same game rules.  Directing is a democratic experience.


An opera is sometimes born because of a theatre piece.  Are they somehow related?  Should this relation be included in a staging and how?
There is no fix rule for that.  When an opera, as it often happens, is born of a theatre piece, it so happens that the libretto is a composition based on that text.  We would think that in the direction we would have to explain the things that we red in the theatre piece and unfortunately we don’t see in the operatic story;  but this is a mistake. The things we find in the text may not be in the libretto of the opera, but they are to be found in the music, in the pauses, in the notes and so there is no need to add information.  Magically, it is enough to put action on the music, which is not an easy thing to do:  Listening must become a theatrical fact, if only the interprets “brief” the music, exist there where there are no words but there is hidden a profound truth. 


“Classical” Vs “Modern” staging in opera:  These two words don’t really include any of the truth of the actual words, nor of the truth of what is happening on stage, but they have created two very true dynamics in the opera world.  “Classical” staging is supposed to be bringing on stage the actual story, using the aesthetic of the time that the story is taking place.  “Modern” staging is related to the German “Regie Theater” and it’s supposed to “brake” the space and time of the story and sometimes, even the story itself.  Is there a… hidden third category of opera staging? 
This "third category" would be the capacity to understand the story that we carry on our shoulders, to study the context in which an opera is born and to ask ourselves why is there any meaning putting on stage that story and those characters and what they can tell to the public of today.  To do a direction that overcomes the war between “modern” and “traditional”, means to understand the symbolisms, the subtexts that pervade the opera and what was the new thing the composer wanted to say, together with the librettist.  The directors of today have to ask themselves what they have in their hands, how to tell that story, with what awareness to approach that narration and how our perceptions of those stories have changed.  There is no “modern” or “classic”.  Theatre is always in the present when it’s authentic:  It is not a costume or the sets to define the concept of modern and contemporary.  I often see performances that are very contemporary but “old” and I also see those which are made many years ago but are still very innovative.


Many years ago, I saw a modern “Norma” direction which was taking place in a modern church and Norma was leading a religious sect.  I never saw “Norma” live before and I was disappointed, because I really expected to see the mystic world of the Druids on stage.  Is it “fair” for a person who comes in an opera house for the first time to see a modern direction and not the original story? 
I can answer only by saying that, the important thing is that the public- even if it their first time watching an opera- sees a true story.  So, even if it not going to be a traditional “Norma”, it is important that the spectator sees something poetic and gets emotional.  This is a big responsibility of all directors:  They are the mediums through which these masterpieces speak to the present time.  Adjusting a story to contemporary models, telling the story in such a “taste” and in an empty, superficial approach is not serving neither the composer or the audience.  On the contrary, to approach the present respecting the original story of the opera and to look for a content that contains the modernisation in order to create a problem of a ‘”form” more appropriate to the “substance”:  This is for me the meaning of dramaturgy. 


Is the traditional art of Commedia dell’arte connected to the Italian operas?  In which works, in your opinion, have you seen its presence the most?
Certainly the operatic repertory of the baroque era and the operatic comedy (“opera buffa”) of 1970 finds its routs in the traditional art of Commedia dell’arte and generally during all history of Italian opera we find several personalities of “servants” (like for example, the role of Vespone in Pergolesi’s opera “La Serva Padrona”).  Commedia dell’arte, always conflicting society, has determined the operatic history not only in Italy, but in the whole Europe, pervading all the stories in the librettos at least until the middle of 1800.  The characters of this world are a precious patrimony:  In every opera we find important tracks of this heredity, from the Ural to Lisbon, influencing many musicians like for example, the German composer Johann Adolph Hasse, who, in his operatic “Trilogy” of opera buffa, made it possible to bring life to characters worthy of Naples’ important tradition.  In this sense, Italia has been the “mother” that has generate opera, specifically thanks to the contribute of the comedians of Commedia dell’arte. 


In theatre and in film, the director choses the artists together with the producers.  Though the opera singers nowadays are thousands, in opera we often see and hear “wrong” castings.  How difficult is to find the whole “package” in an operatic cast and why?
In an operatic cast, the director doesn’t have much to say, because the need of the musical and vocal skills come first.  This has never been a problem for me, because I never worried about the body shape of an opera singer.  To me, it is only important to be able to build up, together with the singer, a character on stage.  This character is a creature that will always change, will always be different, according to the singer or the actor who will give life to the role.  The character is in dialogue with the interpret: my contribution is to help this dialogue happen.


How do you think the plague of COVID-19 will affect the arts and why?
I think that we will all be more careful with our frailty and that art will have to put on the table the matter of each person’s responsibility to rebuild the sense of “community”.  The social distance imposed by COVID-19is a terrible fact that risks undermining an already socially weakened society.  Art will have to intercept more and more a desire for sociality that still exists in the nature of the human being.  We must be capable and humble to overcome our legitimate ambitions and put ourselves more at the service of collective life.  We are standing at a great crossroad:  Either we will be forgotten or society, and therefore the politics urged by citizens, will understand the fundamental role of the arts in public life.  We cannot think of living forever fragmented, we need to contaminate ourselves by accepting the risk, always thinking that death is an uncomfortable but necessary presence in our life, only to bring more light into our lives.  The arts will have a stronger opportunity of telling new stories and new frontiers will open before us.


Art is… 
Art is to create bonds and bridges between human beings.  Art is the vital breath of the world that delivers beauty to eternity.  Art is the moment that lasts for ever and that shapes life inside a human being.  Art is the hope of an utopia that places humans again in the centre, in harmony with what surrounds them, helping them to overcome loneliness and isolation.  Art is vision, perspective through which we bond ourselves to others, art is transformation, it is transfiguration of the human who gets in touch with the divine, the infinity that reveals itself when the body ends.  The non material that becomes material.  Art is life.