(Credit: © D.R)

Opera director Stefano Mazzonis di Pralafera has died at the age of 72.

Stefano Mazzonis di Pralafera was born in the capital of Italy. He studied law and music in Rome, and at the same time pursued directing with the University Theatre in Rome. He directed his first operas in 1983 and was subsequently invited by the several Italian opera houses, including the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Teatro Ventidio Basso and the Teatro Sistina in Rome.

Mazzonis di Pralafera also took part in many prestigious opera festivals, including the Festival della Perdonanza, the Pescara Festival, the Pesaro Festival, the Festival of the Mediterranean, the Bad Kissingen Festival, and the Ludwigsburg Festival, among others.

In 2004, he was appointed the Superintendant of the Teatro Communale di Bologna. In 2007, he was appointed the General and Artistic Director of l’Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège, the position he held until his death.

His numerous productions included Puccini’s “La bohème,” “Madama Butterfly,” and “Manon Lescaut;” Verdi’s “Nabucco,” “Otello,” “La Traviata,” “Don Carlos,” “Aida,” “Rigoletto,” and “Macbeth;” Donizetti’s “Anna Bolena” and “L’elisir d’amore;” Massenet’s “Manon;” Rossini’s “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” and “L’equivoco stravagante,” among others.