Alfonso Signorini

Alfonso Signorini graduated with honours from the Università Cattolica di Milano, earning a degree in Medieval and Humanistic Philology after writing his thesis on Lorenzo Valla. He also obtained a diploma in piano during this time.

After giving up teaching to pursue journalism, Signorini served as a special correspondent for the CHI weekly magazine, which he subsequently left to devote himself to a career as a television author. He played a pivotal role in creating successful programmes such as Novecento, hosted by Pippo Baudo, and Chiambretti c'è, which he co-created with Piero Chiambretti, Irene Ghergo, and Gianni Boncompagni.

At the same time, he continued to excel in journalism, spending five years as the leading society and lifestyle writer at “Panorama”, under the guidance of Carlo Rossella and Pietro Calabrese.

From October 2006 to September 2023, Signorini served as the editor of the CHI weekly magazine. 

In 2006 and 2007, Signorini wrote and co-hosted the Canale 5 programme Verissimo with Silvia Toffanin. 

From June 2008 to 2012, he held the position of editor at TV Sorrisi e Canzoni and was the only regular pundit on Italy’s Big Brother, eventually becoming its host in 2020. 

Signorini also created and presented the programme Kalispera and joined Maria De Filippi’s talent show Amici as a new professor in 2019.

For nearly a decade, from 2007 to 2016, Signorini entertained listeners with the radio programme “Alfonso Signorini Show” every morning on RMC. 

Signorini is a successful author, with a series of bestsellers published by Mondadori, including Troppo fiera, troppo fragile, Chanel, Marilyn, Amore folle amore, L’altra parte di me, and Ciò che non muore mai. Il romanzo di Chopin. 

In July 2017, at the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago, he directed the opera Turandot for the first time. In the same year, he directed Verdi's Simon Boccanegra at the Tblisi Theatre and Puccini's Turandot again at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. In 2018, he returned to the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago, overseeing the revival of Turandot and La Bohème. In May 2023, he directed Tosca at the Teatro Verdi in Salerno. In January 2024, he inaugurated the opera season at the Teatro Bellini in Catania with Turandot, paying homage to Puccini once again.

He makes his debut at the Arena di Verona, directing Puccini's La Bohème for the 101st Festival 2024, a special Fondazione Arena initiative to commemorate Puccini's centenary year.