manuel
renga
MANUEL RENGA.
| THEATRE DIRECTOR
OPERA DRAMA |
BIO
Representation || STUDIO LONGARDI www.studiolongardi.com Laura Pollice - l.pollice@studiolongardi.com
Manuel Renga is an Italian stage director and playwright working across opera, theatre and contemporary music theatre. His work combines a strong dramaturgical approach with a visual and symbolic language, often exploring the relationship between classical repertoire and contemporary audiences.
He graduated in Theatre Directing from the Civica Scuola di Teatro Paolo Grassi in Milan in 2013, where he studied with Renata Molinari, Massimo Navone, José Sanchis Sinisterra, Maria Grazia Gregori, Maria Consagra, Tatiana Olear and Marius von Mayenburg.
THEATER
Since 2012, Renga has directed more than thirty theatre productions across Italy. His work includes ¡Ay, Carmela! by José Sanchis Sinisterra, Portami in un posto carino by Tobia Rossi, Per una donna by Letizia Russo and Testastorta by Nava Semel.
In 2013, he won the Window on New German Dramaturgy competition and was selected to direct Marius von Mayenburg’s The Dog, the Night and the Knife at the Piccolo Teatro di Milano. In 2015, he worked as assistant director on Storia di Qu by Dario Fo and Franca Rame at the Piccolo Teatro.
In 2017, he wrote and directed Nuovo Eden, with Jessica Leonello. The production received a Special Mention at the Tagad’Off Contemporary Drama Festival, won Crash Test Vicenza in 2018, and was selected for the Arrivano dal Mare International Puppet Festival in 2019.
His work also extends to music theatre: in 2022 he co-wrote, with Dario Vergassola, and directed Malèfici. In 2024, he directed Marius von Mayenburg’s La Pietra, a co-production between MaMiMò in Reggio Emilia and Chronos3 in Brescia.
OPERA
Renga began his work in opera as assistant director to Graham Vick on Don Giovanni at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma.
Since 2020, he has developed a close collaboration with the Teatro Regio di Parma and Festival Verdi. His first projects for the festival were La traviata – Caravan Verdiano, conceived for a mobile theatre travelling through the lands of Giuseppe Verdi, and Borders Are Open – Four Sacred Pieces on the Balkan Route, a site-specific outdoor performance based on Verdi’s Quattro pezzi sacri, which he conceived, wrote and directed.
For Festival Verdi, he subsequently directed a new production of Rigoletto at the Teatro Verdi in Busseto in 2022, followed by Falstaff in 2023 and the original 1847 version of Macbeth in 2025. In 2026, he directed the opening production of Festival Verdi at the Teatro Regio di Parma, with a new staging of Verdi’s rarely performed Alzira.
His opera work includes several site-specific and open-air productions, among them Donizetti’s Don Pasquale for the CSA Music Festival in Pescara in 2021 and L’elisir d’amore for the 200.Com project at the Teatro Sociale di Como in 2022.
For Bergamo Brescia Italian Capital of Culture 2023, he coordinated and supervised the stage direction of the opening and closing ceremonies, connecting the Teatro Grande di Brescia and Teatro Donizetti di Bergamo in large-scale events broadcast live on Italian national television.
In 2024, he directed Puccini’s Suor Angelica for the CSA Music Festival in Pescara and Carlo Boccadoro’s Robinson, in a new production for the Opera Festival at the Teatro Grande di Brescia.
In 2025, he made his house debut at the Teatro Regio di Torino with Traviata_La solitudine di una stella and at the Teatro Donizetti di Bergamo with Donizetti’s Il furioso nell’isola di San Domingo for the Donizetti Opera Festival.
He has also directed The Wall – Opera Rock, based on Pink Floyd’s The Wall, at the Teatro Comunale di Ferrara, Teatro Municipale Valli di Reggio Emilia and Ravenna Festival, with choreography by Michele Merola.
In 2026, he made his debut with Fondazione I Teatri di Reggio Emilia, directing Ravel’s L’heure espagnole in a double bill with Raveliana, a new composition by Mauro Montalbetti.
As a librettist, Renga has written two contemporary operas: Il tesoro di Alarico, with music by Salvatore Frega, and La Toccata di Galuppi, with music by Umberto Bombardelli.
OPERA FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES
A significant part of Renga’s work is devoted to developing new forms of opera and music theatre for young audiences.
His work for young audiences began with Opera Domani, produced by AsLiCo – Teatro Sociale di Como, directing L’elisir d’amore and Rigoletto, with performances and collaborations involving theatres and festivals in Italy and abroad, including the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, Opéra National de Bordeaux, Opéra de Rouen, Bregenzer Festspiele and the Royal Opera House Muscat.
In 2022, he wrote and directed Chiara o Serafina?, inspired by Donizetti’s Chiara e Serafina, for the Donizetti Opera Festival in Bergamo. The same year, he was playwright and director of Alì and the Legend of the Music of the Desert at the Royal Opera House Muscat, an original opera developed through workshops involving children and young people from more than fifteen countries. He returned to the Royal Opera Hou
se Muscat for further projects in 2023 and 2025.
For the Donizetti Opera Festival, he subsequently created and directed Luce di Lammermoor in 2023, inspired by Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, and Don Pasquale, il grande gioco dell’amore in 2024.
In 2024, he also wrote and directed Mondi Possibili, a project devoted to accessibility and new approaches to classical music, co-produced by Fondazione Arturo Toscanini in Parma, Fondazione Haydn di Bolzano e Trento, Orchestra della Magna Grecia and AsLiCo Teatro Sociale di Como.
TEACHING
Alongside his work as a stage director, Renga maintains an active teaching practice.
He is Artistic Coordinator of the Theatre Directing programme at the Civica Scuola di Teatro Paolo Grassi in Milan, where he teaches theatre directing, new-media dramaturgy for stage and video installations, and music-theatre directing.
At the Accademia di Belle Arti Santa Giulia in Brescia, he teaches directing for set designers within the postgraduate programme in scenography.
NEXT PROJECTS
“L'anno che verrà - opera pop”
music by Lucio Dalla, Teatro Comunale di Ferrara.
"Il Barbiere di Siviglia"
music by G.Rossini, Opening of NCPA of Beijing
PORTFOLIO | OPERA
MY LATEST WORK. SEE MORE >
PORTFOLIO | DRAMA
MY LATEST WORK. SEE MORE >
INTERVIEWS
Raveliana+L'heure espagnole_I Teatri Reggio Emilia_2026
Raveliana+L'heure espagnole_I Teatri Reggio Emilia_2026
𝘐𝘭 𝘧𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘴𝘰 𝘯𝘦𝘭𝘭’𝘪𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘢 𝘥𝘪 𝘚. 𝘋𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘰 DO Festival 25
Macbeth Festival Verdi 2025
PRESS
Il Furioso nell'isola di S.Domingo | Donizetti Opera Festival 2025
"... un nuovo allestimento che colpisce non per fragore o provocazione, ma per un equilibrio raro: nitidezza drammaturgica, cura musicale, senso del racconto."
"... un vivo successo di pubblico. Merito anzitutto della regia pulita, elegante, teatralissima di Manuel Renga."
The Donizetti Opera Festival’s Temperate and Thoughtful Interpretation of Il furioso nell’isola di San Domingo
Il successo è, come si diceva, calorosissimo: sarebbe bello fosse viatico per una maggior circolazione del Furioso; nel frattempo ci ricorda che i bravi direttori e i bravi registi ci sono, basta saperli individuare e farli lavorare, come ha fatto il festival bergamasco.
"Le premier finale est inoubliable : dans le tumulte « rossinien » du concertato, même les meubles dansent en suspension : un moment de grand théâtre qui a enthousiasmé le public."
Macbeth | Festival Verdi 2025
"Renga è bravo, davvero bravo, un altro esponente di una giovane generazione di registi italiani con tutte le carte in regola, per tecnica cultura e sensibilità, per fare grandi cose."
"Uno spettacolo che commuove"
"Uno spettacolo potente, di stringente coerenza, capace di suggerire inedite prospettive da cui osservare cotanto capolavoro."
"E siamo infine a Parma, dove il Festival punta sul fil rouge di tre registi di prosa - coerente, visto il tema Verdi e Shakespeare. Solo uno va veramente a segno, Manuel Renga, che nello scrigno di Busseto ci immerge in un Macbeth a fior di pelle, torbido, attoriale."
"...la direzione di Manuel Renga mi convinse presto di questa necessità (costruzione di una pedana che circonda la buca), perché i ponti che racchiudevano l'orchestra furono utilizzati in modo ottimale.
Falstaff | Festival Verdi 2023
"E' una regia zampillante d'idee, in perenne, serpeggiante movimento, arricchita da qualche indovinata controscena, che in un climax da pochade francese consegna ad un pubblico divertito e soddisfatto uno spettacolo arioso, fluido, spassoso."
"Un sorriso venato di malinconia. È forse la cifra più autentica di Falstaff, l’estremo capolavoro verdiano. Tale il sentimento che il giovane regista Manuel Renga restituisce nella sua originale lettura."
"Il progetto registico di Renga, dichiaratamente ispirato al teatro elisabettiano, funziona perfettamente attraverso una gestualità spontanea, ironica"
"Un Falstaff minimal corroborante al Teatro Verdi di Busseto... E l’immaginifico ha preso corpo dal grottesco elisabettiano..."
"Il regista Manuel Renga è abilissimo a passare dalla dimensione reale a quella immaginaria..."
Rigoletto - Festival Verdi 2022
Corresponding to this beautiful and successful musical operation is the equally careful direction by Manuel Renga, who manages to always place the protagonists of the drama at the center and a stage with few elements (by Aurelio Colombo) but not for this reason ineffective. A show that relies on many creative insights and the ability to fully exploit all the space of the hall, with the proscenium boxes and the stalls themselves incorporated into the performance thus creates a Rigoletto connoted by an intimate and visceral dimension that involves the audience present.
