Bartoletti's father was Umberto Bartoletti, a blacksmith, who also played clarinet in a Florence band. As a youth, Bartoletti played the piccolo. A teacher in Florence recognised the young Bartoletti's talent in music, and her husband, the sculptor Antonio Berti, recommended him to the Cherubini Conservatory. There, he studied flute and piano. Bartoletti later played in the orchestra of the
Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and subsequently became a staff pianist with the
Teatro Comunale Florence, at its centre of vocal training. He was an assistant to such conductors as
Artur Rodzinski,
Dimitri Mitropoulos,
Vittorio Gui and
Tullio Serafin. In particular, Serafin encouraged Bartoletti to study conducting. In December 1953, Bartoletti made his professional conducting debut at the Teatro Comunale with
Rigoletto. In 1957, he became resident conductor of the
Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, where his work included conducting the Italian premiere of Shostakovich's
The Nose. Subsequently, Bartoletti was artistic director of the
Rome Opera from 1965 to 1973. He returned to the
Maggio Musicale Fiorentino as its artistic director from 1985 to 1991. and served in that capacity until 1999. Over the period from 1956 to 2007, Bartoletti conducted approximately 600 performances of 55 operas with Lyric Opera, with his final conducting appearance at Lyric Opera in a 2007 production of
La traviata. His other notable conducting work at Lyric Opera included conducting the US premiere of Britten's
Billy Budd in 1970, The marriage produced two daughters, Chiara Bartoletti and Maria Poggi, who all survive Bartoletti. Other survivors include a sister, a brother, and five grandchildren, Livia, Filippo, Arianna, Margherita, and Nicolò. ==References==