101st ARENA DI VERONA OPERA FESTIVAL 2024

THE NEW CENTURY OF THE LARGEST OPERA THEATER IN THE WORLD

The new century of the Arena di Verona Opera Festival begins. Fifty events on the bill from 7 June to 7 September, including debuts, great returns and first times by great conductors, including in the program three titles dedicated to Giacomo Puccini on the centenary of his death.

The 101st season opens with the spectacular Turandot by Franco Zeffirelli, scheduled for 8 June at 9.30pm. Tosca – which sees Anna Netrebko in this role for the first time in the Arena, in the historic “noir” production by Hugo De Ana – and a new staging of La Bohème signed by Alfonso Signorini – making his debut in the Amphitheater – are the other two masterpieces of the composer Lucca on stage in the 2024 edition.

Four other iconic works crown the Festival: Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida is performed in two different productions, the “crystal” one signed by Stefano Poda for the hundredth Festival (from 14 June to 1 August) and the staging commemorating the historic Aida of 1913 curated by Gianfranco de Bosio (from 10 August to 5 September) which marks the centenary of its birth; Carmen by George Bizet in the “colossal” staging with direction and sets by Franco Zeffirelli (from 5 July to 7 September) and Il Barbiere di Siviglia by Gioachino Rossini, in the elegant rococo staging by Hugo De Ana (from 21 June to 6 September) .
Extraordinary inauguration on 7 June with the event broadcast worldwide The Great Italian Opera, a World Heritage Site, promoted by the Ministry of Culture and created in collaboration with the Arena di Verona Foundation, to celebrate the practice of opera singing in Italy, proclaimed intangible cultural heritage of UNESCO.

Also on the podium is Maestro Riccardo Muti.

As always, the great international stars of opera renew their presence in the Amphitheatre, making every evening a premiere. Among the over seventy presences from all over the world, the welcome returns of Amartuvshin Enkhbat, Ludovic Tèzier, Vasilisa Berzhanskaya, Lawrence Brownlee, Aleksandra Kurzak, Francesco Meli, Roberto Alagna, Luca Micheletti, Vittorio Grigolo, Elena Stikhina, Jonas Kaufmann, Luca Salsi, and over a third of the cast at the Arena for the first time, including illustrious debuts such as those of Aigul Akhmetshina, who plays Carmen, Pretty Yende, who plays Micaela in the same production, Juliana Grigoryan, who plays Mimì in Bohème and René Barbera in part of the Count of Almaviva in The Barbiere di Siviglia.

Even for the 2024 Festival there is no shortage of event evenings, this year there are six. The great dance of Roberto Bolle and friends is back; Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, two hundred years after its creation. And again Plácido Domingo Noche Española is the planned gala evening; Orff’s Carmina Burana, directed by Michele Spotti, is always awaited. Finally, ballet returns to the Roman Theater of Verona with two dates of Zorba the Greek by Theodorakis, with original choreographies by Lorca Massine.

Furthermore, in a world premiere, Fondazione Arena di Verona and Balich Wonder Studio present a large immersive concert with three-dimensional projections to celebrate The Four Seasons, on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the publication of Antonio Vivaldi’s masterpiece. Viva Vivaldi. The four seasons immersive concert a visionary and multisensory project by creative director Marco Balich. A completely new approach to scenography, through technology, to bring an ever younger audience closer to the Opera Festival.

At the press conference in Rome, in the new headquarters of the Foreign Press Association in Italy, the Undersecretary for Culture Gianmarco Mazzi was present, declaring: «The Verona Arena, with its long history of 101 Festivals, has the artistic know-how and professional to host the great event on June 7th, a unique evening that brings together the entire world of culture in a tribute to opera. It will be the first event of what will become an annual tradition, to be held each time in a large meeting place in the name of the immense heritage that is opera singing».

«The new century of the Arena Festival opens with the celebrations of the practice of lyric singing, a World Heritage Site and with a surprising summer of opera and great entertainment – states Cecilia Gasdia, Superintendent of the Arena di Verona Foundation -. For exactly three months, the most important singers and conductors will take to the stage of the Verona Arena, both established and internationally renowned artists and young stars and promises of opera and symphonic music. We are proud to present not only a season full of proposals, of artistic depth and quality, but also a look at the future of opera and classical music, on the artists of tomorrow and on the very way of enjoying the theater experience. And all this is added to the Verona Arena, which is a truly special open-air theatre».

«An extraordinary program which, after the records of the hundredth Festival, once again raises the bar of Fondazione Arena’s cultural proposal – underlines Stefano Trespidi, Deputy Artistic Director of Fondazione Arena -. The program of the 2024 season will satisfy different types of audiences, with traditional proposals, such as Aida in the historic 1913 staging, exactly one hundred and eleven years after the first Aida in the Arena, and Tosca performed by opera stars, alongside contemporary and avant-garde projects such as ‘immersive Viva Vivaldi and the more recent ‘crystal’ Aida, which add innovation in experience and visual impact to the artistic quality of the greatest composers and their works».