Daniele Finzi Pasca (Lugano, Switzerland), co-founder of Compagnia Finzi Pasca

Author, stage director, choreographer, lighting designer and actor

Daniele Finzi Pasca lives in three worlds at once: stage directing, performing arts, and the art of clowning. Born into a family steeped in the arts, he starts his career as a gymnast and becomes a circus artist before delving into the world of theatre. In 1983, he heads to India where he volunteers to care for terminally ill patients in Calcutta. On his return to Switzerland, with Maria Bonzanigo and his brother Marco he creates the company Teatro Sunil and its peculiar vision of the art of clowning, dance and acting: a theatrical technique they name the “Theatre of the Caress”. With Teatro Sunil he creates and directs around 30 shows depicting a profound sense of humanity and playfulness, performed in about 20 countries. In 1991 he writes Icaro, a monologue imagined for a single spectator that he performs more than 800 times, in 6 languages, still on tour. In 2009 he co-founds Inlevitas with his wife Julie Hamelin Finzi, who died in 2016, aiming to create and develop various artistic projects, where the opera L’Amour de Loin (Love from Afar) for the English National Opera in London is its first production.

In 2011, together with Antonio Vergamini, Hugo Gargiulo, Julie Hamelin Finzi and Maria Bonzanigo, he co-founds Compagnia Finzi Pasca based in Lugano (Switzerland) for which he creates and directs more than 40 shows: 3 Olympic Ceremonies (Turin 2006 and Sochi 2014, the Olympic and Paralympic Games), 2 shows for Cirque du Soleil (Luzia in 2016 and Corteo in 2005 with more than 10 million spectators), 9 operas including Aida and Verdi’s Requiem, which officially entered the repertoire of the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg; Carmen and Pagliacci at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, L’Amour de loin for the English National Opera in London, Einstein on the Beach which opened the 2019/2020 season at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Les contes d’Hoffmann for the Hamburg Staatsoper in 2021, and María de Buenos Aires at the Grand Théâtre de Genève in October 2023. In 2024 Daniele Finzi Pasca directs Zarqa Al Yamama, the first grand opera in Arabic, which makes its debut on 25 April in Saudi Arabia on the historic stage of the renovated King Fahad Cultural Center in Riyadh.

Among big events, in 2017 Compagnia Finzi Pasca produced Montréal Avudo, a multimedia show that combined video mapping, lights and water fountains for the city of Montreal (249,000 spectators in 4 months) and in 2019 Abrazos for the fair Feria de León in Mexico, a special event aimed at families (200,000 spectators). Moreover, its creative team was part of the Fête des Vignerons 2019, an event that takes place four times in a century in Vevey (Switzerland), seen by 375,000 spectators. In 2020 the Compagnia Finzi Pasca staged the artistic part of the inauguration of the largest concert organ in Russia, at the Zaryadye Concert Hall in Moscow: an immersive installation where 24 of the best organists in the world took it in turns to play for 24 hours non-stop (approximately 10,000 visitors).

Currently 6 shows of the Compagnia Finzi Pasca are on tour: Titizé – A Venetian Dream (2024), Nuda (2021), 52 (2021), Luna Park – like a carousel ride (2020), Bianco su Bianco (2014), and Icaro (1991).

In 2022 Daniele writes and directs Azul – Gioia, Furia, Fede y Eterno Amor with Stefano Accorsi, produced by Marco Balsamo’s Nuovo Teatro in co-production with the Fondazione Teatro della Toscana.

In 2023 he created and directed the new contemporary flamenco show Jaleos Jondos.

Other international projects are in preparation with the Company and with Inlevitas, where Melissa Vettore, his wife, is an artistic collaborator.

Daniele published some books, appeared in seven languages: a collection of short stories, two dramaturgies of his shows, a novel, a novella and a long interview-book by Facundo Ponce de León, Daniele Finzi Pasca. Teatro de la caricia.

Amongst many recognitions (e.g. 3 nominations in Broadway for Rain, 2006), Daniele received the Montréal English Critics Circle Award (MECCA) 2009 for Icaro, the Hans Reinhart Ring (2012), the highest distinction of Swiss theatre for his lifelong contribution to the performing arts, the Best Director of Circus Performance Award 2016 (Russia) for La Verità, the Swiss Society Fellowship Prize 2020 (New York, USA), the Prize “Marco Borradori – In tutto ciò che genera bellezza” in 2021 (Lugano, Switzerland)

Vv 06.11.2024