News from Italy
The dream nights in Verona continue…
Vita gazette – One of the most eagerly awaited periods of the year has begun in Italy and Verona… Works by famous composers will be presented to the public during fairytale nights until September…
The hundredth edition of the Arena di Verona Opera Festival opened with the new production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida on 16 June at 9 pm. Transparent pyramids and light architectures grafted into the spaces of the Roman amphitheatre, evoking a technological but intimist Aida at the same time.
The evening was one of the most anticipated events of the opera season and drew a crowd of 20,000 spectators. It also brought several significant world figures, including Sophia Loren, who arrived on the red carpet and received a standing ovation. President Sergio Mattarella was also in attendance. But before the evening began, the Arena opened with a tribute to its soldiers, with the chorus singing the national anthem dressed in Italian flag colours and planes flying over the arena accompanied by red, green, and white. It was a spectacle that heightened the excitement of the evening.
Throughout the evening, you could see LED-laser lights forming a pyramid and others that changed colours from red to blue to green, all creating gorgeous effects. There were also impressive lighting effects in the back of the arena as actors moved in with what looked like light rods that had a fire effect during the judgment scene.
Not just an actress but a true icon, the most famous Italian star in the world was the godmother of the Opera Festival, which blew out one hundred candles celebrating Aida’s premiere. Thunderous applause and standing ovations for Sofia Loren’s entrance into the arena. To accompany her, the minister of culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano, and his son Carlo Ponti, conductor.
In the initial part of the evening, as an introduction to the opera, the diva was defined as a “rare gem” by Alberto Angela, who, walking through the audience, summarised the history and importance of the Arena over the centuries. She generously reciprocated by blowing a kiss with her hand.
The 2023 Festival, in addition to the new staging of Aida, after more than twenty years, presents a second new production on the bill. The award-winning actor and director Antonio Albanese sing Verdi’s Rigoletto on stage for four evenings starting Saturday, 1 July. The show marks the directorial debut in the arena of Albanese, who reinterprets the work paying homage to the great Italian neorealist cinema of the 1950s.
The public will then be able to relive six productions that have marked the history of the Arena Festival: Rossini’s Barber of Seville (from 24 June) and Puccini’s Tosca (from 29 July), directed by Hugo de Ana; the colossal Nabucco by Verdi (from 15 July) signed by Gianfranco de Bosio; Bizet’s Carmen (from June 23), Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (from August 12) and Verdi’s La Traviata (from July 8) according to Franco Zeffirelli – his latest production of the famous masterpiece -, which closes the hundredth edition of the Festival and which will see Anna Netrebko bid farewell to the role of Violetta on the evening of Saturday 9 September. The first Scala dancers, Nicoletta Manni and Timofej Andrijashenko, will also participate in Traviata’s first and last performance; they unexpectedly exchanged their wedding vows on the Veronese stage in 2022.
To further enrich the program of the Festival n. One hundred also four gala evenings and an extraordinary symphonic concert. To the by now traditional and much loved Roberto Bolle and Friends (July 19), three shows are explicitly added built around the personality of three great performers: Juan Diego Flórez for his debut at the Arena di Verona (July 23), Plácido Domingo for the tribute to the Festival on this particular occasion (August 25) and Jonas Kaufmann for his big comeback (August 20). Expected guests, for the first time on the stage of the Arena di Verona, also include the Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan conducted by Riccardo Chailly (August 31).
The private sponsors, donations, and the award-winning 67 Colonne fundraising project have reached over 4.5 million euros. Among the long-standing sponsors, Fondazione Arena di Verona would like to thank UniCredit first of all, which boasts a longstanding collaboration of over 25 years, Calzedonia, Pastificio Rana, Volkswagen Group Italia, DB Bahn, RTL 102.5. This year Metinvest/Saving Lives, Genny, who signs the new uniforms for the personnel used to welcome the public, and Müller, who supports accessibility projects dedicated to people with disabilities, join the team of official sponsors.
Among the official partners, historical brands such as Veronafiere, Air Dolomiti, A4 Holding, Casa Sartori, SABA Italia, SDG Group and the Cultural Partner Palazzo Maffei are joined by Acqua Dolomia, Sanagol and Mantova Village.
