Addio to Rossini Festival founder
RIPGianfranco Mariotti, who founded the Rossini Opera Festival at Pesaro in 1980, died yesterday at the age of 91.
He was Sovrintendente of the festival for 38 seasons, stepping down in 2017. He put Pesaro firmly on the opera map.
His son, the conductor Michele Mariotti , is music director of Rome Opera.
I saw “Guillaume Tell” and “Zelmira” in Pesaro. A great beach town with fantastic restaurants! Probably my favorite opera festival in Europe. Audiences are seriously knowledgeable but not stuck-up like Bayreuth or Glyndebourne.