© Riccardo Lancia
Marialuisa Bafunno graduated cum laude in Set Design from NABA, New Academy of Fine Arts of Milan. in 2016.
She began her journey in Opera at the Stage Direction department of Teatro alla Scala, collaborating with renowned names such as Mario Martone, Grisha Asagaroff, Nikolaus Lehnhoff, Kasper Holten, Jürgen Flimm and follows productions as Turandot, Cavalleria / Pagliacci, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, L'elisir d'amore (staged at Malpensa Airport), The turn of the screw and Ti vedo, ti sento, mi perdo.
Since 2022, she has been collaborating with Leo Muscato both in Opera and Drama Theatre working on productions such Cecilia (Teatro Lirico in Cagliari), Il Xerse (Festival della Valle d’Itria), Manon Lescaut (Teatro Comunale in Bologna), Prometheus Bound and Miles Gloriosus (Teatro Greco di Siracusa), The Twelfth Night (Teatro Stabile in Turin) and The Inspector General (Teatro Stabile in Bolzano).
She is also the revival director for La Cenerentola (Teatro Lirico di Cagliari and Darmstadt, 2025) and for Nabucco (Odeon of Herodes Atticus in Athens).
Over the years, she has collaborated as an assistant with directors such as Serena Sinigaglia, Francesco Micheli, Daniela Kerck, Renato Bonajuto, and Gioele Dix in various theatres in Italy and abroad, including Teatro Donizetti in Bergamo, Teatro Coccia in Novara, Opéra national de Lorraine, and Staatsteater Wiesbaden.
She has served as Stage Manager for the Donizetti Opera Festival in Bergamo (Enrico di Borgogna, Donizetti Tudor, Rita, among others) and as assistant Stage Manager for La Cenerentola at The New Generation Festival 2020 in Florence.
In 2022, she won fourth prize, alongside Vanessa Codutti, in the prestigious XII European Opera-directing Prize promoted by Opera Europa and Camerata Nuova, presenting an innovative version of Benjamin Britten's The Turn of the Screw.
She made her opera directorial debut with Cavalleria Rusticana in September 2022 at the Teatro Fusco in Taranto produced followed in 2023 by La Sonnambula at the Piccolo Opera Festival in a site-specific version staged at Castello di Spessa.
In 2024, she won the OperaLombardia Directing Competition to stage La Bohème which will premiere at the Teatro Sociale of Como, Teatro Grande of Brescia, Teatro Ponchielli of Cremona, Teatro Fraschini of Pavia, and in 2025 at the Teatro Regio of Parma and the ITeatri di Reggio Emilia.
Her interdisciplinary approach spans Opera and Performing Arts, collaborating as creator, set designer, and performer with CROSS Project - LIS LAB Performing Arts, conducting human and site-specific research for audience-centered experiential projects (PlovdivBySenses in Bulgaria, Il Maggiore, Abitare Noepoli, Soup). She is also the Assistant Artistic Director of CROSS Festival, a dance and performing arts Festival.
Since 2014, she has been part of the artistic collective Kokoschka Revival, exploring interactive formats that merge art and technology (LARS, YOUFight!). She has collaborated with Campsirago Residenza on itinerant performances like Frida, staged within the Frida Kahlo exhibition at Mudec in Milan.
In Denmark, she has worked with the Carte Blanche company staging site-specific performances (Møder - I mørket, Arkivet, I Byens Gamle Hjerte) in collaboration with artists from Teatro de Los Sentidos.
In 2021 and 2024, she collaborated with the Sisters Hope, the award-winning performance group from Copenhagen, on the immersive performance Inhabitation, where the audience lives for several days in close contact with the artists in a potential future world.
She also leads workshops and training programs in institutions such as Chulalongkorn University of Bangkok, NABA - New Academy of Fine Arts Milan, Brera Academy, Donizetti Educational, Milano Opera prison, AdiAcademy, Campsirago Residenza, LIS LAB Performing Arts.
Interviews | Articles
OperaWire - Teatro Regio di Parma announces the "La Bohème" Competition Winner
Recensione OperaClick, La Sonnambula al Castello di Spessa, settembre 2023
AndriaLive, Cavalleria Rusticana, Prima della prima, September 2022
OPERA Charm | Magazine, Stage directors of the future, pp. 55-58, December 2021
NABA MEETS Marialuisa Bafunno, Set Design Alumna, April 2020