Music festivals take place throughout Italy in summer and , if you’ve never listened to music under the stars on a balmy summer’s evening or sat, entranced, in a concert hall as a cooling breeze blows through the open door to the piazza, you have a treat in store! Here are five of the best:
Settimana Musicale Sienese, Siena 9th – 17th July 2010
This classical music Festival is now in its 67th year. It is organised by the Accademia Musicale Chigiana and takes place in various venues around the city. The highlight of this year’s festival will be the première of Louis Andriessen’s opera, “Anaïs Nin” which is based on the French writer’s texts. This opera has been commissioned by the Accademia Musicale Chigiana di Siena and the London Symphony Orchestra. The soprano Cristina Zavalloni will sing the title role.
Tickets can be booked by calling 0039 333 9385543 or at this website.
Puccini festival, Torre del Lago, 16th July – 22nd August 2010
The Puccini Festival is an annual event held at Torre del Lago [Tuscany], near Puccini’s home town of Lucca. The Festival is in its 56th year and about 40,000 visitors are expected to attend performances at the Teatro dei Quattromila.
This year the Festival will stage performances of “La Fanciulla del West”, “Tosca”, “Turandot” and “Madama Butterfly”. There will also be a performance of the ballet “Romeo and Juliet” on 11th August
Tickets can be purchased at the Festival website .
While you are at the Festival, you may like to visit the Villa Museo Puccini, the house that the composer had built in 1900 and where he lived until 1921. Puccini is buried in the villa’s chapel along with other members of his family.
Italia Wave Love Festival, Livorno, 21st – 25th July 2010
Still in Tuscany, if classical music does not appeal to you, there is the Italia Wave Love Festival. On 21st July the Festival will open with “Medwave”, a “road concert” by Daniele Silvestri and the Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio. This concert is inspired by the Mediterranean and artists from Spain, Morocco, France, Algeria and Lebanon will take part. The US group Ok Go will play their only Italian gig at the Festival and bands such as Faithless and Underworld will appear. Julian Marley, the son of reggae king Bob Marley, will perform on 25th July.
Follow the links on the Festival website for tickets.
Spoleto 53, Spoleto, 18th June – 4th July 2010
The Spoleto Festival dei Due Mondi , this year in its 53rd edition, celebrates all the arts and is one of Europe’s most prestigious cultural events. Among the musical highlights will be Hans Werner Henze’s opera, “Gogo no eiko”, based on a book by Yukio Mishima, the Berliner Ensemble playing Rufus Wainwright’s interpretation of Shakespeare’s Sonnets and a final concert in which 25-year-old Venezuelan conductor and violinist Diego Matheuz will conduct Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from “West Side Story” and Mahler’s First Symphony.
Tickets information is at the Spoleto 53 website.
No Borders Music Festival, Tarvisio, 22nd – 8th August 2010
This multicultural music festival aims to celebrate music as a universal means of communication whatever its provenance or language for Tarvisio [Friuli-Venezia Giulia] lies close to the Austrian and Slovenian borders. This year sees the Festival’s 15th edition. Rock, folk, jazz, blues, new age, Latin American and African music will all be represented. The Kings of Convenience will appear on 27th July and Mario Bondi will perform on 8th August.
See the “prevendite” section of the Festival site for ticket vendors.
