Fondo Niccolò Piccinni presents the Garda Festival 2026
The Garda Festival runs from 24 July until 1 August on or near the shores of the great Italian lake. All events are free.
Verona
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Russian bass Ildar Abdrazakov’s appearances in Verona are cancelled
Ildar Abdrazakov will not take part in Don Giovanni at the Teatro Filarmonico in Verona in January 2026 as planned.
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It’s like Squid Game – singers suffer under heavy costumes in Verona’s Arena
Squid Game – Singers and dancers are suffering under the heavy, high-tech opera costumes with temperatures over 30°C when the operas start at 10pm.
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Mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili sues the Met over cancelled contracts
Anita Rachvelishvili started experiencing vocal problems during her pregnancy in 2021. The Met cancelled her contracts and she’s suing.
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Francesco Ventriglia to become Alberta Ballet’s new artistic director
Francesco Ventriglia – former dancer with the La Scala Ballet and choreographer – will take over as artistic director of Alberta Ballet in Canada in 2024.
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[Review] David Moore and Rocio Aleman as Romeo and Juliet with Stuttgart Ballet
Matthew Paluch sees John Cranko’s Romeo and Juliet with the Stuttgart Ballet – “I haven’t heard or felt applause like that for quite a while.”
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A 131-CD collection to celebrate Maria Callas’ 100th birthday
To celebrate the 100th birthday of Maria Callas, Warner Classics will release La Divina: Maria Callas in all her roles on 22 September 2023.
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[Interview] Agnese Di Clemente – La Scala’s newest Juliet is from Verona
Agnese Di Clemente, a La Scala soloist with the proportions of music box ballerina danced MacMillan’s Juliet for the first time. She was given opening night.
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New production of Verdi’s Aida opens 100th edition of Verona Arena Opera Festival
Transparent pyramids feature in the new Aida with Anna Netrebko for the 100th edition of Verona’s Arena Opera Festival to be broadcast live worldwide.
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Giulietta – a new ballet with Eleonora Abbagnato, her daughter, and an imaginary friend
A modern-day Juliet, still a child, imagines herself as an adult: I talk to the choreographer of Giulietta, a new ballet + rehearsal photos.
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Soprano Angel Blue pulls out of production at “racist” Verona Arena
“Blackface is offensive and outright racist,” said soprano Angel Blue as she announced that she was pulling out of La Traviata at the Verona Arena.
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Jonas Kaufmann on his Verona debut, new album, and love of Italy
Jonas Kaufmann talks about making his debut in Verona’s Arena at the age of 51, his new album Freudvoll und leidvoll, and his love of Italy since childhood.
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Hui He answers the Gramilano Questionnaire… Singers’ Edition
When did you start singing? I always loved to sing since I was a child. I sang on every occasion, also during public events at school, where my maths teacher heard me and advised me to take singing lesson with her neighbour who was a voice teacher. He listened me, and he told me that…
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Royal Ballet’s Valentino Zucchetti is Mercutio in the Kobborg-Polunin-Cojocaru Romeo and Juliet
On the 26 August, there will be a single performance only of Johan Kobborg‘s new production of Romeo and Juliet with Sergei Polunin and Alina Cojocaru in the title roles. But when the theatre in Verona‘s vast Arena with 30,000 seats it is the equivalent of a 15-performance run in an opera house. Joining them…
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Maria Callas was a tenor
In a bizarre muddle-up by someone at the Verona Sera online news service, a headline stated that 2 August was the 70th Anniversary of ‘tenor’ Maria Callas‘s debut at the Verona Arena. Part of a large group of online local news sites, the Verona Sera headline read: Verona remembers Maria Callas, a bronze statue will…
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Rome’s Colosseum to get its floor back
Ecco nelle foto Alinari come i visitatori vedevano e vivevano il Colosseo sino a poco più di un secolo fa. pic.twitter.com/i4w74IYUlB — Dario Franceschini (@dariofrance) November 2, 2014 Last November Italy‘s Minister for Culture, Dario Franceschini, tweeted about a plan to create a floor for the Colosseum in Rome. The arena had a floor until the 1800s…
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Rosalind Plowright’s first recital disc reviewed: La belle Dame sans merci
During a career spanning almost forty years, Rosalind Plowright has never recorded a recital disc. She has sung in all the world’s greatest opera houses, with the most lauded of colleagues – singers, conductors, directors, designers – and made some important opera recordings and videos, yet the recital disc has never quite happened, even though recitals…
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Roberto Bolle and Friends return to Verona’s 15,000 seat Arena
Roberto Bolle returns to Verona‘s 15,000 seat arena with his Friends roadshow next year. It will be two years, almost to the day, after his last sell-out show. On 22 July 2014, starting at 22.00, Roberto Bolle and Friends will dance on one of the most awe-inspiring stages in the world, surrounded by a 2,000 year-old…
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Mara Galeazzi’s farewell gala with her Royal Ballet friends
Summer months in Italy boast many ballet galas: Bolle & Friends, Abbagnato & Friends… who doesn’t want to tour the glorious piazze of Italy: fantastic dance in fantastic settings. But this year, one gala stands out, for Mara Galeazzi gave her farewell on 23 July at the enchanting Teatro Romano in Verona. Not Galeazzi &…
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Mara Galeazzi’s addio: it’s time to think about my family
Mara Galeazzi, principal dancer with London’s Royal Ballet, though trained at the La Scala school in Milan, will say goodbye to her performing career on 23 July at a starry gala with colleagues from the Royal Ballet in Verona. She talked to the Italian Vanity Fair‘s Paola Saltari: I will carry on with dance, but…
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Pavarotti gets his own mineral water and exhibition
The makers of San Pellegrino mineral water have teamed up with the Luciano Pavarotti Foundation to produce bottles of still and sparkling with the Pavarotti label. The international launch of the Special Edition bottle took place in New York with an installation about the Maestro’s life and career. The exclusive bottles will be available in fine dining restaurants throughout the…
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The Royal Ballet’s Mara Galeazzi says arrivederci to the ballet stage
Just over a month ago the Royal Ballet announced that principal dancer Mara Galeazzi will be leaving the company: Mara Galeazzi will retire from The Royal Ballet in July 2013, at the end of the current season. Mara, who had her first child last April, will move to Oman to be with her husband. She…
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Rosalind Plowright answers the Gramilano Questionnaire… Singers’ Edition
Q&A When did you start singing? Age 12. I had always sung before but only found my true voice at this age. My father was a bass player and had been playing in the orchestra for a performance of The Mikado. Whilst travelling back home I imitated the voice of Katisha and out came this…
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Tonight Roberto Bolle and Friends alight at the 15,000-seater Roman Arena in Verona
Tonight Verona‘s famous Arena is sold out. All 15,000 seats will be full to watch Roberto Bolle and his ‘friends’ dance in the open air. It is a magical place. Italy‘s Il Sole 24 Ore (the equivalent of the Financial Times, and the same colour) spoke to him. Unfortunately half of these interviews are always…
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The dance drain: who will save ballet in Italy?
Italians are great dancers, but they don’t get much opportunity to demonstrate that in their homeland. The history of ballet is adorned with Italian talent: Giuseppina Bozzacchi was the first Swanhilda in Coppélia; three dazzling stars, Carlotta Grisi, Fanny Cerrito, and Marie Taglioni (also the first Sylphide) were celebrated by Perrot in his Pas de Quattre; Pierina Legnani was named Prima Ballerina Assoluta by Petipa…
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A true Latin man: Vittorio Grigolo’s roving eye!
Vittorio Grigolo sang the song Caruso at Verona‘s Arena as a tribute to its composer Lucio Dalla who died last March at 68. It was part of an evening which marks the start of the build-up to the opening of the Arena’s opera season later this month. Placido Domingo, Ildebrando D’Arcangelo and even – bizzarely…
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The opera world’s Angelina Jolie, Nino Machaidze: It’s useless to be nervous
Nino Machaidze, the 28-year-old soprano from Georgia, graduate of Milan‘s Teatro alla Scala Academia, is in Los Angeles with Romeo and Juliet which is boomeranging her around the world’s opera houses for the last few years. The first four years of her professional career have been highly successful, and the LA Times recounts how she was…
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Madonna considers becoming Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s new neighbour in Verona
Madonna is eyeing a house in the northern Italian city of Verona, local sources said Tuesday. “I confirm the American pop star’s interest but I cannot add anything else,” said Milan realtor Alessandro Proto, known for selling a villa to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in Valpolicella, near Verona, and a penthouse outside Turin to…
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