Hugo Gargiulo (Montevideo, Uruguay), co-founder of Compagnia Finzi Pasca

Production Designer, actor, writer and director

While studying architecture in Montevideo, Hugo begins his theatrical training with maestro Luis Cerminara. He participates in a number of shows in Uruguay and in 1994 he meets Daniele Finzi Pasca and the aesthetics of the “Theatre of the Caress”. He soon moves to Switzerland and is immediately involved in the company Teatro Sunil participating in various shows as actor, director and/or scenographer: Così si tirava il destino, Visitatio, Di sogno e volo, Cyrano & Bergerac, Tres Tristes Tangos. In 1998 he marries Maria Bonzanigo with whom he also shares a deep artistic bond.

In 2011, together with Antonio Vergamini, Daniele Finzi Pasca, Julie Hamelin Finzi and Maria Bonzanigo, he co-founds Compagnia Finzi Pasca, a new structure uniting the destinies of Teatro Sunil and of Inlevitas. He participates in some of Daniele Finzi Pasca’s large projects like the Cirque du Soleil production Corteo (2005) where he is a member of the creative team and Turin Olympic Games Closing Ceremony (2006), as part of the directing team.

From 2007 on he particularly develops his role as scenographer by signing his first acrobatic show: Nebbia, a coproduction of Cirque Eloize and Teatro Sunil, and then other shows which are on an ongoing international tour: Donka – A Letter to Chekhov (2010), a coproduction of Compagnia Finzi Pasca and the Chekhov International Theatre Festival and the Théâtre de Vidy – Lausanne; La Verità (2013), Bianco su Bianco (2014), Per te (2016), Luna Park (2020), 52 (2021) and Nuda (2021)

Among the large events, in 2014 he creates the scenography for the Sochi Olympic Games, both the Closing Ceremony and the Paralympic Opening Ceremony. In 2017 he is the stage designer for Montréal Avudo, an outdoor multimedia production for Montreal’s 375th anniversary (250 000 spectators) and in 2019 he is both scenographer and prop designer for Abrazos, an interactive show addressed to families, presented at the fair Feria de León (Mexico) to an audience of 200,000 spectators. For the 2019 edition of the well-known Fête des Vignerons (Winegrowers’ Festival) which takes place once in a generation in Vevey (Switzerland, 375’000 spectators, part of UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage), he created the scenography and designed a 20,000-spectator arena.

Hugo also participated, as a scenographer, in several lyric productions: he creates some props for the Aida that Daniele directs at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg (Maestro Valery Gergiev, 2011) and he designs the scenography to Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci (2011 and 2014) and Bizet’s Carmen (2015 and 2017),both at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples and the latter under the conduction of Maestro Zubin Mehta. Hugo is also the scenographer of the opening opera at the Grand Théâtre in Geneva for the 2019/2010 season with Einstein on the Beach by Philip Glass and Robert Wilson, co-produced by Compagnia Finzi Pasca. In 2021, he designs the scenography for Les Contes d’Hoffmann, also directed by Daniele and produced at the Hamburg Staatsoper under the musical direction of Maestro Kent Nagano.

According to his eclectic spirit, Hugo coordinates various events both in Switzerland and abroad, gives workshops about acting, lectures on scene design (e.g. at Walt Disney Imagineering in Los Angeles). In 2015 he publishes Recuerdos Robados, a collection of short stories which were previously awarded in the context of the “Premios Nacionales de Literatura” 2001 (Uruguay) and of the “Concurso Literario de Montevideo” (unpublished writings section) 2002.

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