Rossini Opera Festival Gianfranco Mariotti has died at the age of 91.

The festival took to social media to announce the news stating, “Gianfranco has left us. There is no saying how lonely we feel right now: there will be time for words and actions to honor and tribute to our founder… Now we just want to hold ourselves in a big hug together with all those who are grateful to a man, a visionary, who contributed in a decisive way to returning the Rossinian genius to the world.”

Born in 1933, Mariotti founded the Rossini Opera Festival in 1980 and became the superintendent of the festival for 38 years ending his term in 2018. When Mariotti stepped down from the festival he said, “I am aware of the importance of the results achieved in all these years, and I thank the people and institutions that have allowed us to realize them. But above all, I would like to thank all my close associates, Rof people, who have lived with me this long, wonderful adventure.”

He was the father of Teatro dell’Opera di Roma’s Music Director Michele Mariotti. In a statement, the Rome Opera noted, “Deep sadness over the passing of Gianfranco Mariotti: a man who dedicated his life to an enlightened work of retrieval and repositioning the works of Gioachino Rossini, founding and leading the Rossini Opera Festival of Pesaro, which, in decades, enriched the cultural and musical life of the people our country. The Opera Theater expresses its proximity to Musical Director Michele Mariotti and his family.”