Biography

Italian theatrical designer. He studied in Venice and Milan as an architect. However, after meeting the stage designer Carlo Galli Bibiena, he choose the theatre, and worked as a stage designer in Milan (in La Scala).

He went to St. Petersburg in 1792 and was admitted to the Directors Board of Imperial Theatres, which came under his leadership in 1827. He designed plays in The Bolshoy Theatre and various court theatres, starting with illusionistic techniques and evolving from Baroque to Romanticism. In addition to designing decorations for various court festivities, including the coronations of Emperors Pavel I, Alexander I, and Nicholas I, he also constructed fireworks.

In 1792, he painted the exterior decoration of Prince Yusupov's Palace (not preserved). Between 1798 and 1799, he participated in the planning and decoration of the park in Pavlovsk, collaborating with architect V.F. Brenna, and taking part in painting the palace (Gonzaga Gallery) and pavilions (Peel Tower, The New Chalet, Turkish Tent). He designed unfinished projects, one for the Opera Theatre of the Mikhailovsky Castle (1799-1800), another for the Kazan Cathedral (1799), and a third for the theatre at Palace Square (1827). Retired in 1828, and was buried several years later at Volkovskoe Lutheran Cemetery in St. Petersburg.