ROME, MAY 26 - The Verona Arena Opera Festival's 2021 summer programme, which will see live performances make a big come back, is based on a duet between opera and art.
The 98th festival will open on June 19 with Giuseppe Verdi's Aida, staged in concert form by Riccardo Muti,to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the first performance of the masterpiece in Cairo.
Each of the shows on the programme will refer to, or be inspired by, one or more top heritage site or museum in Italy or the Vatican City.
The Vatican Apostolic Library and the Valley of the Temples Archaeological Park will collaborate to outline the visual context of Sicilian folk culture, especially in the religious sphere, as seen in Cavalleria Rusticana.
Fellini influences, on the other hand, were chosen for Pagliacci, with a collaboration between the Turin Museum of Cinema and the Fellini Museum that will open shortly in Rimini .
The Arena Foundation identified Turin's Egyptian Museum as the ideal partner for Aida - its collections will act as an element characterizing the dialogue between the Arena's ancient Roman stones and Egyptian iconography.
A collaboration with the National Museum of Italian Judaism and of the Shoah (MEIS) of Ferrara will take the field for Nabucco.
The production of Turandot stems from dialogue with Parma's Museum of Chinese Art and Ethnography (Museo d'Arte Cinese ed Etnografico), a place not just of discovery of the treasures of past eras of distant peoples, but also a place of engagement with far-away, traditional cultures.
The production of La Traviata, a Verdi masterpiece built around a lead character of unprecedented power that had a dramatic impact on the society of the day, takes it lead from path of study on the female figure in all its variations thanks to the rich collections of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
The Arena complex marks the 120th anniversary of the death of Verdi on the evening of his Requiem, the superlative work of this scared and human genre, a work that is both theatrical and intimate at the same time.
The evening offers elements of history and reflection , illuminated by the heritage of the Paestum and Pompeii archaeological sites.
Complementary to this evening is the Beethoven's IX Symphony, a creation that changed the history of music: the perfect embrace of the 'millions' quoted in Schiller's Ode to Joy is depicted with the help of images curated by the Alinari Photography Foundation (Fondazione Alinari per la Fotografia).

In collaboration with: