Press Office
17/02/2016
The Ultimate Opera Experience
From 19th June to 6th September 2015 the 93rd edition of the Opera Festival at the Arena di
Verona is staging the spectacle of Opera in the spectacular setting of the Verona amphitheatre:
a total of 54 appointments with great music which are not to be missed.
For the whole summer, a series of 6 operas will alternate every evening: NABUCCO and AIDA by
Giuseppe Verdi, TOSCA by Giacomo Puccini, DON GIOVANNI by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, IL
BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA by Gioachino Rossini and ROMÉO ET JULIETTE by Charles Gounod.
This program is further enriched by 3 exceptional evenings: 22nd July, dedicated to great ballet
with ROBERTO BOLLE AND FRIENDS, 24th July, which celebrates the world’s most famous
masterpiece by Georges Bizet, with CARMEN GALA CONCERT and 25th August, which presents the
famous musical fresco of Carl Orff’s CARMINA BURANA.
The Festival of the Fondazione Arena di Verona, in the year of the 2015 Milan Expo, intends
following the exposition’s theme, “nourishing the planet” with the culture and the magic of music,
thanks to the most popular operas and the most spectacular and applauded productions from
recent years of over a century of Arena history.
As General Manager Francesco Girondini stated: “The wide range of cultural events offered by the
Fondazione Arena di Verona includes first and foremost the Opera Festival, which is admired
worldwide, but that’s not all. In fact, there is also the Artistic Season at the Teatro Filarmonico,
which enables performances to continue after the end of the Arena’s Festival, and AMO Arena
Museo Opera, the Museum dedicated to Opera’s creativity and excellence. The Fondazione’s aim
is thus to enable the general public to discover our artistic heritage, by spreading information and
making people more aware of the art of music. We are particularly interested in interacting with
youngsters and, in fact, for years, we have dedicated them and schools promotions, projects and
educational and training events to facilitate new generations’ approach to the world of Opera and
knowledge of classical music.”
THE ARENA DI VERONA OPERA FESTIVAL 2015
THE PROGRAMME
A title much appreciated by the Arena di Verona’s audience, mostly for its impressive sets and the
huge number of performers which fills the largest stage in the world, will inaugurate the 2015
Festival on 19th June 2015: Giuseppe Verdi’s Nabucco, presented for 14 evenings with Gianfranco
de Bosio’s 1991 direction, with sets by Rinaldo Olivieri. Riccardo Frizza returns to the Arena to
conduct the first performances, followed by Julian Kovatchev. Further performances: 25 June - 3,
9, 15, 18, 23 July - 13, 18, 22, 26, 29 August - 1, 5 September.
The ‘Queen’ of the Arena di Verona’s Opera titles Aida, will be staged from the following evening,
20th June, in 18 performances with Franco Zeffirelli’s remarkable sets, enriched by costumes by
Anna Anni. Four conductors of the highest caliber alternate on the podium for Verdi’s
masterpiece: Andrea Battistoni, Fabio Mastrangelo, Omer Meir Wellber and Daniel Oren. Further
performances: 27 June - 5, 7, 12, 14, 19, 25, 31 July - 9, 11, 15, 19, 23, 27, 30 August - 2, 6
September.
The third title on the programme for 6 evenings from 26th June is Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca in its
2006 staging by Hugo de Ana, who also leads the direction, costume design and lighting. The
performances are conducted by Riccardo Frizza, Fabio Mastrangelo and Julian Kovatchev. Further
performances: 8, 11, 16 July- 6, 14 August.
From 4th July for 5 performances is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Don Giovanni, in the beautiful
staging by Franco Zeffirelli, who inaugurated the 2012 Opera Festival, with costumes by Maurizio
Millenotti, choreography by Maria Grazia Garofoli and lighting by Paolo Mazzon. After his
extraordinary success in theatres throughout the world with Barocco repertoire debuting on the
Arena’s podium is Stefano Montanari. Further performances: 10, 17, 30 July - 12 August.
From 1st August for 5 evenings Gioachino Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia is staged transforming
the Roman Amphitheatre into the grand garden created by Hugo de Ana in 2007, enriched by Leda
Lojodice’s fun choreography and characterized by the giant, evocative roses which distinguish the
Opera Museum AMO at Palazzo Forti. For this Verdi title, another promising young conductor,
Giacomo Sagripanti, debuts in the Arena. Further performances: 7, 20, 28 August- 4 September.
From 8th August 3 dates are confirmed for Charles Gounod’s essential Roméo et Juliette in
Francesco Micheli’s partly medieval and partly rock staging which has reached its 5th consecutive
season, with sets by Edoardo Sanchi, costumes by Silvia Aymonino, choreography by Nikos
Lagousakos and lighting by Paolo Mazzon. Daniel Oren’s expert baton conducts. Further
performances: 21 August - 3 September.
The Orchestra, Chorus, Dance Company and Technicians of the Fondazione Arena di Verona, are
all engaged, together with numerous mimes and extras.
Among the special evenings which the Fondazione Arena is preparing for its audience, on 22nd
July, due to popular demand, the great international Dance production with Roberto Bolle and
Friends returns. Accompanying the dancers’ performance is the Arena’s Orchestra conducted by
Fabio Mastrangelo.
On 24th July, the highly anticipated Carmen Gala Concert is presented, a performance dedicated
to the most loved pages of Georges Bizet’s masterpiece. The protagonists of the evening are Anita
Rachvelishvili (Carmen), Carlo Ventre (Don José), Dalibor Jenis (Escamillo) and Irina Lungu
(Micaela), and leading the Arena’s Orchestra and Chorus is Omer Meir Wellber. Also for the
occasion, a special treat: the mandolin player Jacob Reuven will surprise the public with an
exciting technique in his performance of Isaac Albéniz’s celebrated Asturias. In addition, the young
prodigy of the violin Giovanni Andrea Zanon will perform Pablo de Sarasate’s virtuous Carmen
Fantasy.
Finally, Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana will be performed on 25th August, the great musical fresco of
medieval poetry which last year met with enormous success as it resounded for the first time from
within the Arena Amphitheatre’s antique stone walls. For this magical evening Andrea Battistoni is
confirmed to conduct the Arena’s Orchestra and Chorus.
MIDSUMMER GALA AT VERONA’S ROMAN THEATRE
Another “must” this year is Fondazione Arena’s appointment with ballet at Verona’s Roman
Theatre, in collaboration with Verona Municipality for the Estate Teatrale Veronese (Verona
Summer Theatre Program). On Friday 14th August at 9:00 pm there will be an exciting
MIDSUMMER GALA based entirely on music by Igor Stravinsky and with choreography, set design,
costumes and lighting by Renato Zanella. The program includes The Firebird and, on its Italian
première, The Rite of Spring in a version created by Zanella. The key performers will be principals
Alessia Gelmetti, Teresa Strisciulli, Evghenij Kurtsev and Antonio Russo, with the Soloists and
Dance Company of the Arena di Verona.
AMO ARENA MUSEO OPERA
To all those attending performances staged during the 93 rd Opera Festival, we suggest a visit to
the AMO Arena Museo Opera, the Museum of the Fondazione Arena di Verona dedicated to
Italian opera’s creativity and excellence, which has as its objective that of enabling visitors to
discover the perfect creative machine at the base of the birth of the famous operas performed.
Located in the splendid setting of Palazzo Forti, on the piano nobile, AMO hosts a permanent
collection entitled From the Idea to the Stage, which is renewed every year and for 2015 has
added new material: original costumes and sets that, according to the calendar of the current
Festival, are used and installed in the Arena and afterwards kept on display in the AMO, as well as
an entire room dedicated to the famous diva Maria Callas, an immortal voice that was the
personification of operatic art. There is also the temporary exhibition “Arena di Verona – A
century of Imagery and Emotion” in the archaeological zone of Palazzo Forti, a photography
exhibition showing the first glorious century of the history of the Arena di Verona opera season.
Plus, from 22nd May to 27th September 2015, AMO hosts the exhibition Dario Fo dipinge Maria
Callas (Dario Fo paints Maria Callas), with over 70 works on show which the Nobel Prize winner
dedicated to the Opera diva.
Lastly, admission to the AMO and the exhibition Dario Fo dipinge Maria Callas at a special price is
reserved for visitors who show their Opera Festival tickets at the Museum’s Ticket Office.
Info: Tel/Fax (+39) 045 8030461 - info@arenamuseopera.com - www.arenamuseopera.com
ARENA DI VERONA 2015 OPERA FESTIVAL PARTNERS
Also reconfirmed for the 93rd edition of the Opera Festival, the important collaboration with
leading European banking group UniCredit, the Opera Festival’s Major Partner for over twenty
years.
For their special support, thanks also go to Official Sponsor Intimissimi, Automotive Partner
Volkswagen Group Italia and Mobility Partner DB Bahn Italia.
OUR THANKS GO TO ALL THE SUPPORTERS
OF THE 2015 ARENA DI VERONA OPERA FESTIVAL
INFO
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