Writer and music historian, Sandro Cappelletto was born in Venice in the second half of the twentieth century. Graduated in Philosophy, he studied harmony and composition with the maestro Robert Mann. Among his main publications, the first critical biography of Carlo Broschi Farinelli (La voce perduta, EDT, 1995), an essay on Gaetano Guadagni (Nuova Rivista Musicale Italiana, 1993), a political investigation on Italian lyric institutions (Farò grande questo teatro!, EDT 1996).
In 2006, Mozart – La notte delle Dissonanze (EDT) was published, a book dedicated to the mysterious introductory Adagio of the String Quartet K 465. From the book, together with the Savinio Quartet, a successful concert-story was born.
For the Storia del teatro moderno e contemporaneo (Einaudi, 2001) he wrote the essay Inventare la scena: regia e teatro d’opera. In 2002, with Pietro Bria, he published Wagner o la musica degli affetti (Franco Angeli), a collection of reflections and interviews by Giuseppe Sinopoli, of which in 2006 he edited Il mio Wagner – il racconto della Tetralogia (Marsilio). In 2008, the Accademia Perosi in Biella published L’angelo del Tempo, a volume dedicated to Olivier Messiaen’s Quartetto per la fine del Tempo.
He is the author of radio and television programs (he created the Rai-Radio Tre program Momus, made a television film on Maurizio Pollini for Rai 3, wrote and hosted the program Inventare il tempo for Rai 5).
His librettos for musical theater were born from the collaboration with significant Italian composers, including Claudio Ambrosini, Daniele Carnini, Luca Lombardi, Azio Corghi. His collaboration with Matteo D’Amico was intense; Among the other titles created with him, she recalls with particular intensity Tutte le notti, tutte le notti io mi svegliavo (2024), a work for the memory dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Fosse Ardeatine massacre. With Fausto Sebastiani she wrote Il paese degli uomini integri (2017), a melodrama dedicated to the memory of the president of Burkina Faso Thomas Sankara. For the music of Michelangelo Lupone, and with the children's choir of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, she gave life to 'Nkodi (My son is a fetish) - Cantata for children accused of witchcraft (2018). On these occasions too, she performed her own texts on stage. On the occasion of the centenary of the First World War, she brought to the stage, with Coenobium Vocale, the cantata La Grande Guerra vista con gli occhi di un bambino.
He collaborated with the madrigal ensemble De Labyrintho for a show dedicated to Carlo Gesualdo. In 2014, Da straniero inizio il cammino – Schubert, l’ultimo anno (Accademia Perosi) was published, a volume dedicated to Schubert’s final creative period.
In 2016, Saggiatore published I quartetti per archi di Mozart. He edited and is the scientific director of the volume Musica for the series Il contributo dell’Italia alla storia del pensiero (Treccani, 2018). In 2020, he published Mozart. Scene dai viaggi in Italia (il Saggiatore). He translated and commented on Il Testamento di Heiligenstadt e Quaderni di conversazione by Ludwig van Beethoven (Einaudi 2022). In 2025, the 4 volumes of the Enciclopedia Treccani della Musica Contemporanea 1900-2025 were published, of which he is the scientific director, together with the late Ernesto Assante.
At the invitation of Giuseppe Sinopoli, he directed the dramaturgy and teaching sector of the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. Academician of the Accademia Filarmonica Romana, he was its artistic director from 2009 to 2013. A professional journalist. He is an Academician of Santa Cecilia.