Ronconi was born in Sousse, Tunisia. After growing up in Tunisia, where his mother was a school teacher, Ronconi graduated from the Academy of Dramatic Art in Rome in 1953. He acted in productions of Luigi Squarzina, Orazio Costa, Michelangelo Antonioni, and others. In 1963, he directed his first play, La buona moglie, and from then on worked almost exclusively as a director. His first great success was with Orlando furioso. Ronconi is considered to have been one of Europe's most influential theatrical directors. He worked for renowned companies, such as the Burgtheater in Vienna, the Vienna State Opera, the Rossini Festival in Pesaro and the Salzburg Festival. His work was often seen at the Teatro alla Scala, from 1974: Die Walküre, Siegfried, Wozzeck, Don Carlos, Donnerstag aus Licht, Les Troyens, Ernani, Samstag aus Licht, L'Orfeo, Il viaggio a Reims, Aïda, Fetonte, The Tale of Tsar Saltan, Guillaume Tell, Oberon, Lodoïska, Elektra, La damnation de Faust, Tosca, Ariadne auf Naxos, Moïse et pharaon, Europa riconosciuta, Il trittico, and The Makropulos Affair. Ronconi managed the Teatro Stabile di Torino from 1989 to 1994, where he directed an imposing edition of Karl Kraus' The Last Days of Mankind, with more than sixty actors, staged in the Lingotto. The play was performed soon after the First Gulf War and its anti-militaristic content was evidently tied to that conflict. Ronconi collaborated with important stage designers, among them Pier Luigi Pizzi, Luciano Damiani, and Ezio Frigerio. He also inspired the architect Gae Aulenti to design certain of his productions. Fashion designerKarl Lagerfeld also created the costumes for some of Ronconi's stagings. His operatic productions also included Carmen, Das Rheingold, Nabucco, Il trovatore, Norma, Macbeth, La traviata, L'Orfeo, Don Giovanni, The Turn of the Screw, Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria, Lohengrin, L'incoronazione di Poppea, and Intolleranza. In 1998, he was the recipient of the Europe Theatre Prize. Maestro Ronconi died in Milan on 21 February 2015, at the age of 81.
