Damiano Michieletto was born in Venice and studied at the Paolo Grassi school of dramatic arts in Milan. He made his international debut at the Wexford Festival in 2003 with a highly acclaimed production of Jaromir Weinberger Švanda dudák which the Irish Times named “Opera production of the year”. In the space of a few years he has become one of the most significant directors of Italy’s younger generation. He has directed L'italiana in Algeri at the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, La gazza ladra in a coproduction for the Pesaro Rossini Festival and the theatres of Bologna and Verona (Franco Abbiati Prize 2008), Lucia di Lammermoor, Il Corsaro, Luisa Miller, and Poliuto at the Zurich Opera, Roméo et Juliette and a Mozart / Da Ponte cycle at the Fenice in Venice, Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, La Scala di seta at the Pesaro Festival and at Milan’s La Scala, The Barber of Seville at the Grand Théâtre in Geneva, Madame Butterfly at the Teatro Regio in Turin, L'elisir d'amore at the Teatro Bellas Artes in Valencia, the Graz Opera and the Teatro Real in Madrid, The Greek Passion by Martinů at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Così fan tutte at the New National Theatre in Tokyo, Il Trittico at the Theater an der Wien and Copenhagen’s Royal Opera, Un Ballo in maschera at La Scala in Milan, Idomeneo at the Theater an der Wien, The Rake’s Progress at the Leipzig Opera and at the Fenice in Venice, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte, Le Nozze di Figaro, and Die Zauberflöte at the Fenice in Venice, Il viaggio a Reims at the national Amsterdam Opera, Guillaume Tell at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London, L'elisir d'amore at the Monnaie in Brussels, and Rossini’s Otello at the Theater an der Wien. In 2012, he made his debut at the Salzburg Festival with La Bohème and he was invited back in 2013 for Falstaff and again in 2014 for La Cenerentola. The theatre also represents an important part his artistic career. In particular, he directed Goldoni’s The Fan and a scathing interpretation of Gogol’s The Government Inspector at the Teatro Stabile in Venetia.