Vittoria Crespi Morbio, born in Milan, took her degree at the Università Cattolica di Milano under the supervision of Miklós Boskovits with a thesis on 18th century Lombard painting (1989).
An expert in the relationship between the figurative arts and the musical theatre (she is a historian of opera scenography) she curated numerous exhibitions at the Museo teatrale alla Scala, Palazzo Reale and Palazzo Marino in Milan, the Festival of Spoleto, the Milan Triennial, the Fondazione Ragghianti in Lucca, Palazzo Martinengo in Brescia, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the Dahesh Museum of Art in New York.
Her vast number of essays include the outstanding monographs of Pier Luigi Pizzi (1999), Franca Squarciapino (2000), Giuseppe Palanti (2001), Ezio Frigerio (2001), Lila De Nobili (2002), Marcello Dudovich (2004), Leopoldo Metlicovitz (2005).
For the ‘Sette dicembre’ Series (Edizione Amici della Scala) she published the following books: Franco Zeffirelli alla Scala (2006), Wagner alla Scala (2007), Caramba Mago del costume (2008), Femmes Fatales all’Opera (2009).
She is director of the series on theatre documents and studies published by Allemandi, for which she edited Maria Callas. Gli anni della Scala (Maria Callas, the Scala Years) (2007) and Karajan. Lo stile di un Maestro (Karajan. The Master’s Style) (2008). Again for Allemandi she signed many monographs devoted to scenographers and costume designers active at the Teatro alla Scala.
As an art critic she wrote in the art sections of Il Giorno from 1993 to 2000 (in 1994 she was awarded the special mention of the “Oscar Signorini” prize for young contemporary art critics). She has written for La Nazione, Resto del Carlino, Il Sole 24 Ore and Corriere della Sera.