Page 63 - CoESPU Magazine 2017-3

INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

“Franco Zeffirelli”

Throughout his career (spanning 70 years), writer, scenographer, costume designer and director
Franco Zeffirelli produced
18 films, staged 31 theatre
performances and brought
to life more than 100
operatic works, all fruit of a
professionalism that was
built with commitment and
rigor from his days as a
young actor at the
Accademia di Belle Arti
and his love for music. His
creations are both elaborate
and patient constructions,
the combination of an
intuition based on wisdom
and depth. The Museum at
the International Centre for the Performing Arts was created primarily as a permanent exhibition
dedicated to his work.
The exhibition begins in the post-war period, when Zeffirelli attended the Department of
Architecture in Florence, while also performing with amateur companies and working as an
assistant to scenographer
Camillo Parravicini. A
meeting with Luchino
Visconti during a
performance at the Teatro
della Pergola led him to
definitively abandon his
studies and dedicate
himself to show business,
and he entered into the
Company founded and
directed by Visconti. He
would spend seven years
alongside Visconti, years
that Zeffirelli, years later,
Franco Zeffirelli Foundation. The main hall during a conference. described as "precious,
extraordinarily educational and constructive for my future” first as an actor, then as stage manager
for an historic show designed by Salvador Dalì and finally as a scenographer and first assistant
director, also on films that have since become part of cinematic history.

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