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 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

the diabolical. It begins with three performances (6, 10, 13 Nov) by the controversial dancer Sergej Polunin (the man with a Vladimir tattoo on his chest who was fired by the Paris Opera Ballet in 2019), followed by two operas, Mozart’s Don Giovanni (7, 11, 14 Nov) and Gounod’s Faust (8, 12, 15 Nov). www.ravennafestival.org.

TEATRO DELL’OPERA DI ROMA 16 July-13 Aug Rome’s 2020 summer opera season presented by the city’s opera house will take place at the Circus Maximus, which will host a total of 21 shows under the stars, beginning with Verdi’s Rigoletto conducted by Daniele Gatti, on 16 July. Construction work on the stage and seating began in recent days, and an added bonus of the prestigious location is being based right beside the workshop that makes the opera house’s sets, scenery and costumes. The programme includes The Barber of Seville (22 July-13 Aug) and The Merry Widow (31 July-12 Aug), both of which will be conducted by Stefano Montanari. Also to look forward to are Le Quattro Stagioni, a ballet based on Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (25 July-3 Aug), and Omaggio a Roma, with stars Anna Netrebko and Yusif Eyvazov (6-9 Aug). Rome’s summer opera season normally takes place at the Baths of Caracalla – since 1937 – but the historic venue was ruled out definitively for being “incompatible” with the new covid-19 social distancing rules, which allow for a maximum of 1,000 spectators. Piazza di Siena in the central Villa Borghese park had been proposed initially as an alternative summer venue for 2020, however in the end the opera house settled on the Circus Maximus. The move is part of the city’s summer ‘Romarama’ programme which will be based mainly at four venues: the Cavea of the Auditorium Parco della Musica, the outdoor space of Teatro India, the city’s parks, and the “piazza” at MAXXI. All performances scheduled for the Teatro dell’Opera’s cancelled 2020 summer season at the Baths of Caracalla have been moved to the 2021 season, with this year’s tickets valid for next summer season. For full details about the summer 2020 opera season, including tickets, see Teatro dell’Opera di Roma website, www.operaroma.it.

MACERATA OPERA FESTIVAL 17 July-9 Aug The Macerata festival is going ahead in the Sferisterio theatre with the theme of Biancoraggio, which seems appropriate for this covid-19 year, but in a reduced version to what was originally announced. Of the three operas initially on the

programme – Tosca, Don Giovanni and Il Trovatore – only Mozart’s Don Giovanni will be staged, with its premiere on 18 July and then performances on 24, 26 and 31 July, 2 and 8 Aug, and perhaps a few other dates. It is directed by David Livermore. Tosca, a new production directed by Argentinian director Valentina Carrasco, has been rescheduled for 2022 and Il Trovatore, to be directed by Francisco Negrin, will be in concert form only on two evenings. Part of the problems for the reduced programme is the decrease in ticket sales because of covid-19 health and social distancing regulations and part the lack of available indoor rehearsal space. Don Giovanni has been chosen because it is a co-production that has already been staged and because it has a manageable number of instrumental and vocal performers. There are several other concerts and one dance event. Check the website for confirmation of all dates and times as they may be subject to last minute change, www.sferisterio.it.

INCONTRI IN TERRA DI SIENA 21 July-30 July This exclusive and very top-quality festival in and around the house and grounds of La Foce, belonging to the family of Iris Origo, is going ahead with two live socially-distanced concerts in La Foce courtyard on 21 and 26 July and three webcasts on 23, 28, 30 July with virtual dinner, music, interviews, a guided tour of the gardens and special chefs’ menus for web participants to be made at home. www.itslafoce.org.

PUCCINI OPERA FESTIVAL 6-21 Aug The Puccini festival at Torre del Lago near Lucca continues, with two more Puccini operas in Aug following on after Gianni Schicchi on 27 June directed by Valentina Carrasco, Tosca directed by Stefano Monti on 6 and 14 Aug, and Madama Butterfly directed by Manu Lalli on 8 and 21 Aug. There are also various concerts and other events. Antonio Pappano conducting the S. Cecilia orchestra

will perform on 28 July. The events, which include compositions by young composers inspired by Tosca, will take place at Torre del Lago as well as other places in the vicinity. The original 2020 programme will be moved to 2021. www. puccinifestival.it.

ARENA FESTIVAL VERONA 25 July-29 Aug Having announced that all the 2020 events were re-scheduled for 2021 the Arena Festival in Verona now has a programme of concerts with the Arena Orchestra led by various conductors dedicated to Mozart, Wagner, Verdi, Vivaldi, Rossini, Puccini. Two events will be led by Placido Domingo on 28-29 Aug, one his own concert and the other conducted by him. www.arena.it.

ROSSINI OPERA FESTIVAL 8-20 Aug The festival goes ahead in Pesaro with a new production of La cambiale di matrimonio (8, 11, 13, 17, 20 Aug) at the Teatro Rossini with the orchestra in the stalls and the audience in the boxes. It will be conducted by Dmitry Korchak, in his debut as the conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica Rossini. It is a co-production with Royal Opera House Muscat and will be staged there in Jan 2021. The last performance on 20 Aug will be streamed live on the website www.rossinioperafestival.it and in Pesaro's Piazza del Popolo as per tradition. Il Viaggio a Reims will also be staged in the square (12, 15 Aug) as will various concerts with an impressive list of Rossini singers, Olga Peretyatko (9 Aug), Jessica Pratt (14 Aug) and Juan Diego Florez (16 Aug) among them. More details will be released on the festival's website www.rossinioperafestival. it. Moïse e Pharaon and Elisabetta Regina d'Inghilterra which were on the original programme have been postponed until 2021.

FESTIVAL DEI DUE MONDI 20-23 and 27-30 Aug The famous Spoleto festival is usually held in July. This year the 2020 season has been cancelled but the festival's board has agreed

The Piazza del Duomo in Spoleto which will host eight special events in August.

eight events on two weekends at the end of August. It opens on 20 Aug with Monteverdi's Orfeo in the Piazza Duomo. On 21 Aug Emma Dante directs a musical event called Messaggeri with songs and music. On 22 Aug Piazza Duomo hosts three three theatrical events, monodramas for a women's chorus and orchestra called Arianna, Fedra and Didone with Roberto Abbado conducting the Orchestra Giovanile Italiana. On 23 Aug there will be a piano concert by Beatrice Rana. On 27 Aug Monica Belluci leads the event Maria Callas Lettere e Memorie with text by Tom Volf. On 28 Aug the orchestra of the Teatro Carlo Felice di Genoa performs Le Creature di Promoteo / Le Creature di Capucci with music by Beethoven and original costumes by Roberto Capucci. 29 Aug Luca Zingaretti reads La Sirena by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and the closing concert in Piazza Duomo is conducted by Riccardo Muti with the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini. Tickets will be at a discount. www.festivaldispoleto. com.

MITO SETTEMBRE MUSICA 3-21 Sept Milan and Turin, two of the cities worst hit by the covid-19 pandemic, usually stage an ambitious series of concerts every September. The website www.mitosettembremusica. it says bravely “See you in September” and the programme will be announced in July. www. mitosettembremusica.it.