Born in Turin in 1936, he subsequently lived in Buenos Aires, where he earned his degree, and afterwards lived in London, Rome, Milan and Florence. He studied music in London, at the “Accademia Chigiana” in Siena, at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. He speaks five languages fluently. From 1967 to 1980, he worked for the Musical Direction of the Italian Broadcasting Corporation (Radio Televisione Italiana - RAI). He was the delegate for music at the European Union Radio Broadcasting and Artistic Director of the RAI Orchestra and Chorus of Rome from 1977 to 1980. He was also adviser to the “Accademia Filarmonica” in Rome. In 1980 he moved to the La Scala Opera House where he first worked as Assistant Artistic Director, being named Artistic Director two years later. He remained in that post until September 1992. During his long period at the La Scala Opera House, he organized important tours in Germany, Japan, and the former Soviet Union, etc. Many of the shows he was responsible for received the Abbiati Award of Italian critics.

He has collaborated with the most important conductors (Kleiber, Abbado, Muti, Maazel, Bernstein, Prêtre, Giulini, etc.), directors (P. Chereau, B. Wilson, L. Ronconi, A. Vitez, G. Strehler, ecc.), singers, choreographers, etc. Since 1992 he has been Artistic Director of the “Teatro Comunale of Florence - Maggio Musicale Fiorentino” where he has staged important productions, many of which won awards (“Moses und Aron” by Schoenberg with Zubin Mehta, “Fierrabras” by Schubert with S. Bychkov and Luca Ronconi, performances on Japanese “NO” with Bob Wilson, “Lucia di Lammermoor” with Zubin Mehta and Graham Vick, “Ariadne” with Zubin Mehta and Johnathan Miller, “Elektra” with Claudio Abbado and Lev Dodin, “Turandot” with Zubin Mehta and the Chinese director of “Raise the Red Lantern”, Zhang Yimou, etc.).

The “Teatro Comunale” of Florence has made a highly successful tour of Japan and is the first theatre to have performed “Turandot” inside the Forbidden City in Beijing.