 | The Arena di Verona Festival (Verona Arena Festival) is a summer festival of opera, located in the city of Verona Italy. Since 1936, it has been organized under the auspices of an official body. Today it is organized under Arena di Verona Foundation. (Top: Outside of Verona Arena) (Bottom: Inside of Verona Arena) |
 | Opera performances are given in Arena di Verona, an ancient Roman amphitheatre, which was capable of holding 20,000 spectators. Performances traditionally begin at dusk and spectators on the stone seats of the arena bring small candles (the “mocoleto”) which are lit as darkness falls and the performances begin. |
| The first operas were performed in 1913 in celebration of the centenary of the birth of Giuseppe Verdi and were produced by the tenor Giovanni Zenatello and the theatre impresario Ottone Rovato. Their staging of Aida in the biggest open-air lyrical theatre in the world began a long tradition. The 86th Opera Festival will take place from 20 June to 31 August 2008. The programme comprises six operas, with a total of fifty performances, involving all the artistic groups of the Arena di Verona: the Orchestra, Chorus, Corps de Ballet and technical support. The Season begins with the Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida on June 20th a new production inspired to the first stage design of Aida in 1913, signed by Ettore Fagiuoli. The musical conduction is entrusted to Renato Palumbo and the opera is directed by Gianfranco De Bosio. The second opera in the programme on June 21st is Tosca by Giacomo Puccini, in Hugo de Ana’s acclaimed 2006 production of which a DVD has been published. The next opera will be Giuseppe Verdi's Nabucco on June 22nd, with Denis Krief as director as well as stage and costume designer, in the production that so successfully inaugurated the Festival in 2007 and of which a DVD has just been published. The fourth work is Georges Bizet’s Carmen, in the already-famous production from 1995 extensively revamped in 2003 by the great Florentine director and stage designer Franco Zeffirelli. To follow, on August 2nd, Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto, in the 2003 production with Ivo Guerra as director and Raffaele Del Savio as stage designer. To conclude, there is a new production of Charles Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette on 16 August. Marcello Giordani and Angela Gheorghiu will be the interpreters of this Shakespeare's tragedy. Event: 2008 Arena di Verona Festival Date: June 20 (Friday) - August 31 (Sunday), 2008 Location: Arena di Verona Verona, Italy |
| SOURCE: 2008 Arena di Verona Festival |
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