Roberto De Simone (born 25 August 1933) is an Italian stage director, playwright, composer and ethnomusicologist.

Born in Naples, after graduating in piano and composition at the San Pietro a Maiella Conservatory De Simone started an intense concert activity, performing as an harpsichordist in the Domenico Scarlatti Orchestra.

[1] At the same time he started being active as an ethnomusical researcher and essayist, mainly focused on the southern Italy folk music of oral tradition, with also some interest in tarantism and funeral laments.

[2] In the second half of the 1960s he met some musicians who shared with him an interest in traditional music, and this encounter led to the foundation of the Nuova Compagnia di Canto Popolare, with whom De Simone collaborated for a decade.

[1][2][3] Other notable stage works include Mistero napoletano, L'Opera buffa del Giovedì Santo, and Stabat Mater.