Franco Mari was born in Italy. He has designed lighting for numerous opera, theatre and dance productions. His opera productions include Macbeth, Don Carlo, Il trovatore, La traviata, Oberto Conte di San Bonifacio, I Masnadieri (Verdi), Carmen (Bizet), L'elisir d'amore (Donizetti), Die Fledermaus (J. Strauss), Tristan und Isolde (Wagner), Norma (Bellini), La bohème, Tosca (Puccini), Il barbiere di Siviglia, Tancredi, Semiramide (Rossini) and many others. He has worked at the opera houses of Madrid, Siviglia, Barcelona, Lisbon, Paris, Toulouse, Munich, Buenos Aires, Bologna, Parma, Venice, Florence, Pesaro and many others.

His works at the Israeli Opera include:
La bohème (2017)
Nabucco (2015)
La bohème (2017)
Otello (2013)
La Traviata (2011)