FESTIVALS Planning for the summer music and opera festivals has been extremely difficult not just because dates have been uncertain but also because the cover-19 lockdown has made rehearsals almost impossible and travel schedules for everyone have been up in the air, especially for international artists. However almost all festivals are adapting as best they can to the new distancing conditions. Needless to say programmes are changing all the time so check the festival's website and the usual social media channels. We apologise for any mistaken information about festival schedules in the June edition of Wanted in Rome but that's what we had available at the time. Since then there has been a great deal of activity behind the festival scenes, much of which is still going on. What we do know in date order:
RAVENNA FESTIVAL
21 June-30 July, 6-15 Nov
This festival is going ahead in an impressive effort to put the covid-19 pandemic behind us. Looking at the extensive programme it is almost as though Italy had not been in lockdown for nearly three months. Riccardo Muti, who is the force behind the festival, conducted the opening concert on 21 June at the Rocca Brancaleone with his Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra and soloist Rosa Feola with music by Scriabin and Mozart. The festival organisation is planning 40 events and the full programme is now on the festival website. All social distancing regulations will be in force, with strictly controlled access to each location. Wearing masks will be compulsory. There are numerous concerts from
Rome's summer opera season moves to the Circus Maximus.
classical to contemporary music, with two of the lead concerts in the Le Vie dell’Amicizia series, this year for Syria, both conducted by Riccardo Muti. The one on 3 July is at the Rocca Brancaleone in Ravenna and on 5 July, again conducted by Riccardo Muti, at Paestum. The concerts this year are dedicated to Hevrin Khalaf, a Kurdish-Syrian woman killed in an ambush in 2019. Paestum and the devastated Syrian city of Palmyra are culturally very close as World Heritage Sites and a twinning initiative was launched in 2018 in memory of the murdered head of
46 | July-August 2020 • Wanted in Rome
antiquities Khaled Al-Asaad. Both concerts will feature Beethoven’s Eroica symphony. There are tributes to Beethoven 250 years after his death and so much more, from film music to jazz. The main dance event called Duets and Solos on 18 July is curated by Daniele Cipriani involving international stars, choreographies and music, with Mario Brunello on the cello and Beatrice Rana piano. The November opera festival from 6-15 Nov spotlights Dante Alighieri 700 years after his death in Ravenna in 1321 in Project Dante, the divine the human and
