Arturo Brachetti
Actor and quick-change artist born in Turin in 1957, heir to the art of Fregoli: Guinness World Record holder for costume changes, Molière Award winner, ambassador of Turin to the world.
Arturo Brachetti (Turin, 1957) is an actor, illusionist, director and quick-change artist, considered the world's leading exponent of theatrical quick-change: the art of lightning-fast costume changes on stage, which had made Leopoldo Fregoli famous in the early twentieth century and which, after him, had been left without heirs.[1][2] He holds a record registered with Guinness World Records; the City of Turin named him in 2023 an ambassador to the world for the excellence of the Turin area.[1]
Discovering magic in the seminary
Brachetti was born in Turin in 1957.[1] His vocation came by an unexpected route: at the age of fourteen, in a seminary, he met don Silvio Mantelli, a priest and magician known as "il mago Sales" ("Sales the magician"). It was his parents, Brachetti himself recalls, who wanted to push him to socialise; the priest helped the shy young man gain confidence by teaching him conjuring tricks and disguises, and from there his profession was born.[2][3]
Paris and the legacy of Fregoli
Barely into his twenties he moved to Paris, where, as he recalled years later, he found himself with no competitors:[2]
"When I went to Paris in 1978 I was the only quick-change artist in the world."
At the Paradis Latin cabaret, where he made his debut in 1979, he revived the forgotten art of quick-change and became its leading attraction.[2][3] That debut launched an international career that took him to the stages of France, Switzerland, Belgium, the United Kingdom and the United States.[4]
The Man of a Thousand Faces, and the record
The show that established his fame is L'uomo dai mille volti (in France, L'Homme aux mille visages), a solo show of transformations that earned him the Molière Award in 2000.[4] According to the official website, in Paris it was seen by 600,000 spectators across three theatres, the Marigny, the Mogador and the Casino de Paris; overall the show drew more than two million spectators.[4][5]
It was with that show that he entered the Guinness World Records: over the 250 Paris performances of 2001–2002 he carried out a total of 22,500 costume changes. The fastest change, from a black tailcoat to a white one before the audience's eyes, takes two seconds; the record credits him with more than 250,000 changes over his career and a wardrobe of more than 350 custom-made costumes.[6] The artist's own website sums up the record as the fastest costume change, under two seconds, and speaks of a hundred characters played in a single evening.[3]
In 2009 the English-language version, Change, played at the Garrick Theatre in London, from October to January 2010, and was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award.[4] It was followed by Solo, his new one-man show: more than sixty characters inside a house with no place and no time, made of memories and fantasies, where each room tells a different aspect of being human, with shadow play, mime, chapeaugraphie, sand painting, lasers and video mapping.[5]
Director and man of the theatre
Alongside the stage, Brachetti works as a director and artistic director. He has been the theatre director for the trio Aldo, Giovanni e Giacomo since their earliest days, with the show I Corti.[3] His productions include Brachetti che sorpresa, Comedy Magic, the musical Fregoli, Ciak si gira and Gran Varietà Brachetti.[4]
In Turin he directed Fred!, a show written and performed by Matthias Martelli about the nocturnal world of Fred Buscaglione, with trumpet by Fabrizio Bosso, co-produced by Enfi Teatro with the Teatro Stabile di Torino and Il Parioli: it debuted at the Teatro Carignano on 5 December 2023 and ran until 17 December.[7] With the same Martelli, he held the talk Arturo racconta il Varietà at the Polo del '900, as part of the Torino Fringe Festival 2025.[8]
Ambassador of Piedmont and of Turin
In July 2012 he was chosen to promote Piedmont in New York: on 17 July, at the Enit offices in the Rockefeller Center, a show was announced, the first step in a collaboration with the Region wanted by the then tourism councillor Alberto Cirio, in which he would transform into a trifolao (truffle hunter), a sommelier and a cook, but also into Cavour, Fellini and Casanova, to tell the story of the Langhe and the Roero, Turin and the Venaria Royal Palace.[2] He said he often spoke, on tour, of Alba, of wine and of truffles: "The truffle is mystery, it is wealth, it is fragrance," he explained, calling himself "proudly Piedmontese and from Turin."[2]
On 24 June 2023, the feast of San Giovanni, mayor Stefano Lo Russo presented him, in the Council Chamber of the Palazzo Civico, with the title of ambassador to the world for the excellence of the Turin area, established by the City in 2020.[1] Receiving the parchment, Brachetti said:
"Turin is my city not only because I was born here but because I have always believed in it, even when it was sad and grey and I, instead, dreamed it in colour."[1]
On the same occasion he compared the city to his own craft: every hundred years, or even less, Turin "has changed its skin."[1] In June 2026 he was among the Turin figures interviewed for the Ballo in Bianco, the great open-air barre dance lesson in Piazza San Carlo.[9]
Honours
In addition to the Molière, Brachetti was named Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture in 2011 and Commendatore of the Italian Republic by President Giorgio Napolitano in 2014.[1][5] The Magic Circle of London awarded him the David Devant Award for services to international magic.[3][5] He lives in Turin between tours.[1]
Pages linking here
Related articles: Alberto Cirio
Sources
- Torinoclick – Città di Torino — 24 June 2023
- Famiglia Cristiana — 11 July 2012
- Arturo Brachetti (sito ufficiale)
- Arturo Brachetti (sito ufficiale)
- Arturo Brachetti (sito ufficiale)
- Guinness World Records
- Teatro Stabile di Torino — 5 December 2023
- Torinoclick – Città di Torino — 15 April 2025
- Torinoclick – Città di Torino — 6 June 2026