La Scala mourns famed art director, 91

The director Giorgio Strehler’s favourite partner in costume and design, the unassuming Ezio Frigerio, has died at the age of 91.

Aside from dozens of productions for La Scala, he was chosen to design the gravestone for his friend Rudolf Nureyev.

La Scala statement:
La Scala mourns the loss of Ezio Frigerio, active for more than 50 years in drama theatre, opera, ballet, and cinema, a role model of Italian culture of the twentieth century: a set designer who was able to leave his influence on the productions of all the great directors he has worked with, from Strehler to Ronconi, from Liliana Cavani to Graham Vick, from Bertolucci to Rappeneau.
He began his collaboration with Giorgio Strehler at the Piccolo Teatro in 1955 and in the same year he made his debut at La Scala designing the costumes for Il matrimonio segreto on the occasion of the Piccola Scala’s opening. A very long and fruitful collaboration with La Scala followed, which led him to sign 32 productions, 8 of which inaugurated the Season: Otello (1959), Simon Boccanegra (1971 e 1978), Falstaff (1980), Lohengrin (1981), Ernani (1982), Don Giovanni (1987), Fidelio (1990 and 7 December 1999), Otello (2001).
Thanks to Roland Petit and his friendship with Rudolf Nureyev, he made his debut in the world of ballet, first in France and then also at La Scala with Swan Lake and Romeo and Juliet. During his career he worked at more than 300 productions and has been awarded with many prizes including the Molière, the French Critics Prize twice, the English Critics Prize, the Premio Abbiati twice and, for cinema, the César, the European Community Award, and an Oscar nomination.

Photo: Teatro alla Scala / Erio Piccagliani