ABOUT

Fabrizio Funari was born in Rome, Italy, in 1991. His long-term passion for music and lyricism began at the age of thirteen with the songwriting and recording of two single EPs. From a young age, he has always been interested in theatre and opera: first as an acting and directing student and later as a lyricist and playwright. Fascinated by the norms that govern communication, he graduated in Linguistics and Oriental Languages, focusing on the philosophy of language. Polyglot, he continued his academic and professional career in London, Beijing, Madrid and Seville by writing librettos and plays in English, Spanish and Italian and collaborating with established and emerging composers such as Germán Alonso, Niño de Elche, Martin Gaughan, Kieron Smith and Marco Benetti and with international festivals such as the Venice Biennale.          

His creative engagement with contemporary opera stems from his long-term passion for ancient and postmodern literature and philosophy as well as his interest in queer theory and contemporary art to describe non-normative narratives and identities. For his line of work, he adopted a queering approach which is to be understood in its broader academic terms (i.e. the study of literature, discourse and other social and cultural areas from a non-normative perspective including social, economic, political and cultural issues and identities). Also anti-prescriptive, his writing reflects hismodus cogitandi as he restructures and reinvents its grammar, syntax, morphology and, specifically, phonetics.

Echoing Robert Bloom’s 1930 commentary on W. H. Auden’s writing, his language reveals a sense of urgency and extremity; it has time only for the most important words. Germinated in a post-capitalistic society, his work – influenced by postmodernism and the théâtre de l’absurde – is a mixture of neurotic estrangement and joie de vivrea phantasmagoric use of the language aimed at exposing the failure of communication – and understanding in contemporary society that leaves people alienated, unquestioning and conformist.

His librettos are permeated withthe music of György Ligeti, Luciano Berio and Francis Poulenc as well as the work of Michel de Ghelderode, Allen Ginsberg, Arrigo Boito, W. H. Auden, Kostantinos Kavafis, Lorenzo da Ponte, Reinaldo Arenas, Eugène Ionesco, Jean Genet, W. B. Yeats, Tristan Tzara, Jean Cocteau, the Chinese Misty Poets and Federico García Lorca.     

His work The Sins of the Cities of the Plain (commissioned by the Instituto de las Artes y Culturas de Sevilla and Fundación BBVA) is the first dramaturgical and melodramatic text in history to be written entirely in Polari, a crypto-language adopted by the fin de siècle homosexual community in the British metropolises (especially London) and progressively vanished after the decriminalization of homosexuality in 1967. 

MANIFESTO

  1. Librettos should describe non-normative narratives and identities. This queering approach should be understood purely in its broader academic terms (i.e. the study of literature, discourse and other social and cultural areas from a non-normative perspective including social, economic, political and cultural issues and identities).
  2. The librettist should consider the collective imaginary solely as an aesthetic means rather than a digestible end.
  3. Librettos should reflect all contemporaneity and should not be elitist.
  4. Librettos should deploy a certain degree of symbolism yet hermeticism must be avoided.
  5. Librettos should be ambiguous as they portray reality and all reality is ambiguous.
  6. Similar to reality, librettos have no beginning or end.
  7. The librettist should defy normative language and be anti-prescriptive.
  8. Opera should be considered as a synthesis of the arts so long as all its elements have authentic artistic and intellectual values in their own right.
  9. Librettists should aim to actively work together with other artists as well as composers, directors and everyone involved in production.
  10. Realism, realism, realism. Consciousness, consciousness, consciousness. Boomboom, boomboom, boomboom.

WORKS

MEDIA

PHOTOS

VIDEO

AUDIO

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    Fabrizio is represented by Arcadia & Ricono, Ltd and Factotum Agency.

    For professional inquiries on his work as a playwright please email
    prof@arcadia-media.net or ufficio.diritti@arcadia-media.net.
    For professional inquiries on his work as a librettist please email
    gianluigi.zecchin@gmail.com.

    RECENT NEWS

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    2 years ago

    💥 DEJA TODO LO QUE ESTÁS HACIENDO AHORA MISMO 💥Estoy extraordinariamente feliz, orgulloso, confundido, pero sobre todo agradecido de poder finalmente anunciar que mi nuevo musical @siestofueraelmusical se estrenará el 25 de junio 2021 en – redoble de tambor – Teatro Central de Sevilla, uno de los teatros mas increíbles de España y uno de mis sitios favoritos.Priscilla encuentra a Almodóvar. @siestofueraelmusical es un homenaje a todas las travestis que tanto lucharon por los derechos del colectivo LGTB+ en los años ochenta. Una aventura musical sobre la España post-franquista, la amistad, la valentía, el amor y sobre todo la familia. Y todo condimentado con los mejores temazos de los años 80. Todavía me parece esto un sueño y tengo que agradecer por esta oportunidad a dos de las personas más importantes de mi vida a los que tengo la suerte de llamar mi segunda familia: @mansanrod Y @emiliosevillano. No encuentro las palabras (lo cual es bastante irónico) para expresar mi infinita gratitud a estos dos maravillosos seres humanos, quienes me incluyeron en este proyecto y que pronto se ha convertido para todos en un faro de luz durante la cuarentena. Os quiero, hermanos.Y realmente no podría haber pedido un mejor equipo con el que trabajar para mi primer musical (y trabajo en español). El espectáculo está dirigido por uno de los directores más empáticos, talentosos e inteligentes que he conocido, @ramonperera_; y protagonizado por algunas de las drags mas talentosas de España: @pequecanadas, @chichiinparadisco, @torrijaasucar, @lakemoi y la actuación especial de una leyenda de la cultura pop y queer española y uno de mis héroes, @estrella_fernando. Sí, el mismo.Y un equipazo de producción impresionante:Ayudante de Dirección: @fernando_jariegoDirector Audiovisual y Sonido: Francisco Collantes (Tres Producciones y Media)Iluminación: Manuel ColcheroEdición musical: Carlos DomínguezVestuario: David Panal Sánchez Diseño de audiovisuales: Benjamín ArnelaDiseño gráfico: Curro JacksonProducción: Togayther (Emilio Cuerva y Manuel Sánchez)Podéis comprar las entradas en: tienda.togayther.es. ENLANCE EN LA BIO.❤️ ... See MoreSee Less
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    2 years ago

    Grazie.#francobattiato #battiato #canzoneitaliana #GenioItaliano #cuccurucù #cucurucucu #lavocedelpadrone #lavocedelpadrone2021 #opera #operaitaliano #instaopera #operalove #composer #contemporaryopera #ContemporaryWriter #contemporarycomposers #Alice #compositoriitaliani #compositora #compositore #librettista #canzoni #librettist #artistaitaliano #italianartist #loveislove ... See MoreSee Less
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