The interview of the month

Let’s meet Marco Fieni, Chief Engineer of the Festival.

  1. Can you tell us about your professional experience before joining the ROF?

Before coming to the ROF, I attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Urbino in 2007, when I started studying the scenography course, where I immediately took part in the shows that the course organised with the teacher Francesco Calcagnini at the Teatro della Fortuna in Fano, where we students participated both in the scenography project and in the practical realisation of the scenography, dividing up the various departments (tailoring, carpentry, lighting, directorial assistance, etc., like a small theatre company). Then, in June, the show was set up and staged. This went on until 2010, when I started working with the Rossini Opera Festival in the same way, only changing the place where the scenes were created, i.e. in the Festival’s workshops with real professionals.

  1. What was your first contact with the Festival?

Thanks to this new collaboration in the academic year 20092010, I started at the ROF as an intern (stagehand) with the opera Demetrio e Polibio, where I took part in the first stage of the workshop constructions and then in the staging up to the debut; from there my collaboration and “love” for the Festival began, which I have renewed every year until today.

  1. Could you tell us about your job at the ROF?

Today I am the Chief Engineer and the person in charge of the iron constructions. In the construction phase, I design and build the iron structures of the sets in collaboration with the technical department. During the set up phase, coordinated by the stage manager, I am in charge of the set construction of the infrastructures, such as the gymnasium, and then I divide the stagehands into teams to follow the shows until they are dismantled.

  1. What is your favourite memory of your experience at ROF?

My favourite memory is meeting and working with the directors and technicians of the old school, to whom I owe everything I have learnt.

Published in : 19 March 2025