From Parma to Hollywood: Verdi Off takes the Maestro to Los Angeles

The Teatro Regio di Parma is taking Verdi Off, the free, participatory strand of its Festival Verdi, to Los Angeles. From 15 to 22 November 2026, a week of events – a gala, workshops, a cookery project and flashmobs from Venice Beach to the Hollywood Walk of Fame – carries Verdi’s music into some very different corners of the city.

It is the first chapter of a three-year partnership (2026–28) between the Regio and the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce West, the Italian chamber of commerce for the US West Coast. The partnership runs up to the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, when Los Angeles will be one of the world’s main stages, and its aim is to build lasting links – connecting institutions, businesses, cultural organisations and local communities.

Culture as diplomacy

The Regio presents the project as more than a showcase for Italian heritage. It sees it as a model of cultural and economic diplomacy, in which culture becomes a practical way of building international relationships. Alongside cultural institutions, the project involves Italian companies looking to invest in the US, open new commercial channels or strengthen ties they already have.

Verdi Off was launched in Parma in 2016 as a free strand of the Festival Verdi, open to everyone. In ten years it has taken music, dance, theatre and the visual arts out of the theatre and into squares, neighbourhoods, schools and the places of everyday life.

An Italian excellence gala

The week opens on Sunday 15 November, from 6pm, at the Taglyan Complex with the Italian Excellence Gala & Awards, the chamber’s annual celebration of people, companies and organisations that champion Italian and Italian-American excellence in business, culture, innovation and social life. For the first time, Verdi Off is the evening’s presenting partner.

This year’s honourees include Petra Conti and Eris Nezha, former principals of La Scala, Boston Ballet and Los Angeles Ballet, who now run Hollywood Ballet, the company they founded in 2023. They are joined by Sasha Vujacic, the Slovenian former basketball player who came up through the youth teams in Udine and won two NBA championships with the Los Angeles Lakers, and Valter Longo, the Italian-American biogerontologist who directs the Longevity Institute at the University of Southern California.

After the red carpet and cocktail reception comes a gala dinner by chef Enrico Bergonzi of PQR – Parma Quality Restaurants, then the awards ceremony. The artistic programme turns the evening into an immersive tribute to Verdi and Parma, with music from Il trovatore and Nabucco, video-mapping and live visual art by Imaginarium (Francesca Pasquinucci and Davide Giannoni), and performances by Pasadena Civic Ballet and Hollywood Ballet. Young musicians from the Education Through Music – Los Angeles Honors Choir sing a new interpretation of ‘Va, pensiero’ from Nabucco.

Verdi at the table, in the classroom and in the studio

On Monday 16 November, from 6pm, the Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Los Angeles hosts Verdi. Terra, Musica, Tavola (Verdi: land, music, table), an immersive, multidisciplinary event that looks beyond the myth of the Maestro to the man – his places, his affections and his deep bond with the land and its food. It is part of the Week of Italian Cuisine in the World and of the official opening event promoted by the Italian Consulate General in Los Angeles with the Istituto Italiano di Cultura and the chamber of commerce.

In four acts – La Terra, La Casa, La Spalletta and Il Teatro – music, words, images, video-mapping and food culture combine in a sensory journey of storytelling, performance and tastings. Pasquinucci and Giannoni of Imaginarium provide the live visual art, arrangements and musical direction, with texts and research by Verdi Off. Parma Welcome, Fidenza Village, Parma Quality Restaurants and Parma, io ci sto! are also involved, presenting Parma and its surroundings as a cultural and tourist destination.

On Tuesday 17 November, from 5pm, A Taste of Verdi brings Verdi Off’s food-education programme, led by Bergonzi, to the cooks of the Hollywood Food Coalition. The non-profit, founded in 1987 to fight hunger and food waste, serves hot, nourishing meals every night of the year to anyone in need, without asking for documents or proof of income. Together, the cooks will create a dish for the coalition’s guests that tells the story of the land Verdi loved, with support from partners including De Cecco and the Consorzio del Parmigiano Reggiano.

On Wednesday 18 November, from 4pm, Verdi Kids Go West! visits El Centro del Pueblo, a non-profit founded in 1974 in Echo Park that supports children, young people and families with educational, social and recreational activities and violence-prevention work. Verdi Off runs two workshops there: one in the visual arts, led by Pasquinucci, and one in dance and movement, led by Petra Conti, to arias from Nabucco, Aida, La traviata, Il trovatore and Rigoletto.

On Friday 20 November, at 7pm, Verdi Off After Dark turns to contemporary art with a gala evening in the studio of Fidia Falaschetti, an internationally active artist with roots in the Marche, in the Los Angeles Arts District. The evening is part of FEED YA, the artist’s series bringing together art and conviviality: an invitation-only dinner where contemporary art, music and the traditional cooking of the Marche meet.

Verdi takes LA: music on the streets

The week ends outdoors. On Saturday 21 November, Verdi Takes LA stages a flashmob between Venice Beach and Santa Monica Pier, created by Imaginarium and Pasadena Civic Ballet, in which music from Il trovatore and La traviata meets street dance – the great symbol of Italian opera alongside the energy of American urban culture.

On Sunday 22 November, an Education Through Music flashmob, again by Imaginarium, moves between the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Lake Hollywood Park, turning some of California’s best-known public spaces into open-air stages. Young local music groups trained by Verdi Off artists also take part.