Biography

Italian composer, musicologist and artistic director. After starting a career as a pianist, he began writing music for films, ballet and TV serials. An expert on 18th-century Neapolitan opera. Artistic director of the Teatro S Carlo in Naples from 1981 to 1987, in 1995 he was appointed director of the Naples Conservatory.

In the second half of the 1960s he met some musicians who shared with him an interest in traditional music, and this encounter led to the foundation of the Nuova Compagnia di Canto Popolare, with whom De Simone collaborated for a decade.

Roberto De Simone was an Italian stage director, playwright, composer, and ethnomusicologist.

After graduating in piano and composition at the San Pietro a Maiella Conservatory De Simone started an intense concert activity, performing as an harpsichordist in the Domenico Scarlatti Orchestra.

In 1976 he made his debut as a playwright (also serving as librettist, composer, and director) with the stage musical La Gatta Cenerentola, which was first staged at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto.