Claudio Vellutini studied Musicology at the University of Pavia-Cremona, where he earned his BA and MA. He received a Diploma in Violin at the Istituto Musicale “Claudio Monteverdi,”, Cremona. Currently he is a Ph.D. candidate in Music History and Theory at the University of Chicago, where he also collaborates with the Center for Italian Opera Studies. He is spending the current academic year as an Ernst Mach Fellow at the Universität Wien, thanks to a grant of the Österreichisches Austausch Dienst, funded by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research. He is working on a dissertation on Italian opera in Restoration Vienna and its interaction with the Habsburg political system. His research interests focus on Italian opera performance practice, staging, textual criticism, dissemination, and reception. He is also active as a music critic, and regularly collaborates with Italian and American opera houses and music festivals.