Considered one of the most promising stage directors of his generation, Fabio Ceresa is the winner of the 2016 International Opera Awards for “Young Director”.
He began his career at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, collaborating with many of the most important contemporary directors, including Luca Ronconi, Deborah Warner, Patrice Chéreau, Dmitri Tcherniakov, Pier Luigi Pizzi, Peter Stein, Eimuntas Nekrošius and Richard Jones… and working at the restaging of historical productions of Giorgio Strehler, Franco Zeffirelli and Jean-Pierre Ponnelle.
Following these formative years at Italy’s preeminent theater, Fabio Ceresa gained international acclaim for his staging of Madama Butterfly at both the Teatro del Maggio Musicale and Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari, and for his new production of I Puritani he offered Turin and Florence.
His most recent work in opera includes new productions of Gounod’s Faust at the Teatro Massimo di Palermo paced by Daniel Oren, Carmen at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma led by Omer Meir Wellber, La Clemenza di Tito for the Opéra de Lausanne, Mascagni’s Guglielmo Ratcliff, Donizetti’s Maria de Rudenz and Vivaldi’s Dorilla in Tempe for the Wexford Festival Opera, Vivaldi’s Orlando furioso for both the Teatro Filarmonico di Verona and Festival della Valle d’Itria, Verdi’s Un ballo in Maschera and Giordano’s Andrea Chénier for the Hungarian State Opera, Guillaume Tell, Rigoletto and Cavalleria Rusticana & Pagliacci for the Theater Kiel, Giulio Cesare in Egitto for the Theater St. Gallen and La Traviata for the Vilnius Lithuanian National Opera.
The Korea National Opera welcomed Ceresa’s Orlando finto pazzo by Vivaldi as well as Les Vêpres siciliennes and Macbeth by Verdi.
Fabio Ceresa enjoys a close association with the Teatro La Fenice which hosted his stagings of Vivaldi’s Il Bajazet (Il Tamerlano), Orlando furioso, Dorilla in Tempe and Bluebeard’s Castle by Bartók.
He opened the 2024/2025 season of the Venice theatre with a new Otello paced by Myung-Whun Chung.
Ceresa staged Don Giovanni in Shanghai and Mercadante’s Francesca da Rimini in Tokyo and made his American debut with La Traviata at Palm Beach Opera.
In addition to his work as a stage director, Fabio is also an accomplished librettist. With composer Marco Tutino he has written La Ciociara commissioned by the San Francisco Opera and Miseria e nobiltà commissioned by the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa.
In the 2025/2026, Fabio Ceresa will sign a new production of Verdi’s Macbeth at both the Teatro Verdi di Pisa and the Teatro Carlo Felice di Genova, and will direct Vivaldi’s Orlando furioso at the Opera de Oviedo. The Teatro Pergolesi in Jesi will welcome his new production of Pergolesi’s L’Olimpiade as well as the world premiere of Il Giudizio di Paride by Paolo Marchettini, with a libretto written by Ceresa himself.
