Cesare Lievi was born in Gargnano on Lake Garda in 1952.
He achieved success as a stage director first in Italy, and later in Germany and Austria where, working with his brother Daniele until the latter’s death, he staged a series of highly-successful plays which were widely acclaimed by both the public and the critics. These included Orme di Ariele (“The Footprints of Ariel”) by C. Lievi (Gargnano 1985 – Hamburg 1989), Barbablù (“Bluebeard”) by Trakl (Venice Biennial 1984, Vienna – Burgtheater 1991, Mittelfest in Cividale del Friuli 1992); Goethe’s Torquato Tasso and Clavigo for the Centro Teatrale Bresciano (1986 – 1989); La morte di Empedocle (“The Death of Empedocles: A Mourning-Play”) by Hölderlin (Gibellina 1987); Il nuovo inquilino (“The New Tenant”) by Jonesco (Heidelberg 1988); Kleist’s La Caterinetta di Heilbronn (“Käthchen of Heilbronn”) (Basle 1988); Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito (“The Clemency of Titus”) (Frankfurt 1989); Il tempo e la stanza (“Time and the Room”) by Botho Strauss (Vienna 1990); Henry IV and Sei personaggi in cerca d’autore (“Six Characters in Search of an Author”) (Vienna 1989 – 1993); Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (Vienna 1991); Wagner’s Parsifal (Milan, Teatro alla Scala, 1991); Fratelli, d’estate by C. Lievi (Schaubühne, Berlin, 1992); Cinderella by Rossini (Zurich 1994); Gesualdo by A. Schnittke (Vienna 1995).
Lievi also translated works by Hölderlin, Goethe, Trakl, Rilke; Marsilio published a collection of his verses under the title Stella di cenere while Ricordi published his theatrical work Fratelli, d’estate. Variété, presented in a monologue in Gargnano in December, 1992; Tra gli infiniti punti di un segmento in Udine, produced by the Centro Servizi Spettacoli in January, 1995.