Scholar, musician, director, composer, playwright. Roberto De Simone was one of the most complex and influential figures of the Italian culture of the second half of the twentieth century. Born in Naples in 1933, he dedicated the entire life to the rediscovery, reinterpretation and enhancement of the Popular Tradition of Campania, returning to her artistic dignity and intellectual thickness.
Graduated in piano at the Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella, he established himself as an ethnomusicologist for reference in the study of the songs, religious rites and expressive languages of the South, with a philological and creative approach. He was among the founders of the new Popular Singing Company, a group with which he brought a forgotten repertoire to the national and international scene, bringing him out of the margins of folklore to return it to the history of music and theater.
His the theatrical work ‘La Gatta Cinderella’, three acts written and music of 1976, brought to the Spoleto Festival of that year, inspired by the fairy tale of the same name in the Cunto de Li Cunti of Giambattista Basile, in which I mix ‘Villanelle, Moresche and Tammmurriate with the cultured music of the European European, with texts in Neapolitan.
During his career he has held leading roles in cultural institutions: artistic director of the San Carlo Theater, of the Conservatory of Naples, and author of shows that have marked a turning point in the way of representing the southern identity on the scene. Among the initiatives that also bring his signature the relaunch of the historical library of the Neapolitan Conservatory. In 1998 he promoted a large project to enhance the musical heritage, with structured inventory, restoration and digitization interventions, supported by dedicated funding.
His research has gone through the territories of cultured and popular music, of the ritual theater, of cultural anthropology, helping to rewrite the narration of the South, far from stereotypes and rooted in historical complexity. His works and his thoughts have been the subject of study and representation in numerous international academic and theatrical contexts, making him one of the main interpreters of contemporary Mediterranean culture.
After a long illness, De Simone died on Sunday evening, around 9.30 pm, in his home in via Foria, assisted by his nephew Alessandro. He had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease and had been hospitalized in a healthcare facility since January. It hasn’t appeared in public for months. Death would have occurred due to respiratory complications.
Hard room at San Carlo and city mourning
The mayor of Naples and president of the Teatro di San Carlo Foundation, Gaetano Manfredi, ordered the preparation of the burning chamber for the master Roberto De Simone at the Foyer of the theater.
The burning chamber will be open to the public tomorrow from 13 to 19, and at 13.30 the string quartet of the Orchestra professors of San Carlo will perform Mozart’s Requiem in his honor of the Master; And then the day after tomorrow from 10 to 14.
The funeral, celebrated by the Archbishop of Naples, Mimmo Battaglia, will take place the day after tomorrow at 4 pm in the Cathedral of Naples. For the day of the funeral, the mayor declared a city mourning.