He was born in Italy and studied at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Catholic University of the Sacred Heart), Milan, as well as at the University of Notre Dame du Lac (Indiana, USA) and Yale University (USA). He began his theatrical career at Yale University, where, during the period 1970-1974 he directed several plays, while at the same time concluding his Ph.D. in Philosophy. As of 1977 he was assistant director to Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, and Ken Russell. He made his debut as director in 1982 in Palermo, directing the opera The Secret Marriage [Il matrimonio segreto]. Since then he has directed many operas around the world: Parma [Carmen], Naples, Torre del Lago [Tosca] and Macerata (Italy), Belo Horizonte (Brazil) [Cavalleria rusticana], Tokyo [Don Giovanni], Detroit [Don Pasquale], Kiev [Faust], Malta [Macbeth], Seoul [Lucia di Lammermoor], etc. He has collaborated with several renowned artists such as Frederica von Stade, Fiorenza Cossotto, Piero Cappuccilli, Denyce Graves, Renato Bruson, Lucia Valentini Terrani and Daniela Dessi. He has directed works spanning from Monteverdi to contemporary composers. He occasionally delivers seminars to young singers and has taught at the University of Notre Dame du Lac, Yale University and Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan. For the GNO, he directed The girl of the West [La fanciulla del West] (1985/86) and directed and designed lighting for Siege of Corinth [L'Assedio di Corinto] (1993) and Tosca (1994).