On June 13 he rises curtain on 102 ° Arena di Verona Opera Festival with Nabuccor of Verdi, intense choral fresco of biblical inspiration, which has become the “soundtrack” of the Italian Risorgimento, relives in a whole new production signed in every aspect by the visionary Stefano Poda.
The work becomes a timeless journey from conflict to reconciliation, from pride to hope, between humanism and technology: the peoples in Conflict of Nabucco are all men, all the peoples, yesterday, today, and perhaps tomorrow, who discover themselves through the separation, violent and painful but with the hope of a new reunification. A production that is also a great technical challenge for the Arenian workers and for the numerous workshops involved, with unpublished solutions for the 3,000 costumes and spectacular scenic effects.
On stage 400 among artists, mimi, figures, dance, engaged in unpublished battle choreography of fencing, and of course the choir, the true protagonist of the work. Is the new Nabucco by Giuseppe Verdi signed by Stefano Poda who Rai Cultura offers Saturday 21 June at 9.20 pm on Rai 3, on the occasion of the World Music Day, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture.
The evening, with the direction of Fabrizio Guttuso Alaimo’s TV, sees the participation of Cristiana Capotondi and Alessandro Preziosi. On stage a cast of international stars of the work, led by Amartuvshin enkhbat, Imposing voice born in the remote heights of Mongolia and today the Verdian baritone of reference. Next to him Anna Pirozzi in impervia part of Abigaille, Vasilisa Berzhanskaya (Fenena), Francesco Meli (Ismael), Roberto Tagliavini (Zaccaria), Carlo Bosi (Abdallo), Gabriele Sagona (Belo’s great priest) e Daniela Cappiello (Anna).
Over 160 choir artists directed by Roberto Gabbianiand 120 professors of the Arena Foundation orchestra, directed by the expert master Pinchas Steinberg, who makes his expected return to Verona 25 years after his Arenian debut.
A title that has always been beloved in the Arena for its intrinsic and spectacular chorus, in the new Nabucco production has already been called “atomic”: In its wealth and multimedia, it also places a great technical challenge to the Arenian workers and the numerous workshops involved, with unpublished solutions for costumes and scenic effects.
Great symbolic elements and drawings of innovative lights combine on the scene, at the service of the drama of Verdi which tells a conflict not only between peoples but within each individual, between pride, consciousness and hope. An idea of permanent conflict that is declined at any time of the staging, through multiple war visions, from threatening post-modern saber up to an atomic missile.
«Two polarity attract and repel each other throughout the scenic action – he explains Stefano Poda – Up to a point of maximum repulsion and splitting, and then arrives at the synthesis of the ending in which the two opposites are reconciled. The metaphor is that of the ties between the atomic particles: from their union the matter originates, but man has discovered how to separate them causing total destruction. Technological progress makes everything possible and Nabucco does not hesitate to use its material superiority against the defeats, up to dramatic consequences: the teaching of this masterpiece is that rationality, to be well directed, cannot be separated from spirituality “.
On stage the contrast between reason and faith, between technology and philosophy. Two apparently distinct values, two dimensions represented by as many semi -transfers, imposing technological installations that revolve to reunite the ending. Like the man who first separates and divides, and then reconstructs, he brings together hoping to find harmony. To loom, a great hourglass, symbol of the time and memento of ‘vanitas’, Ready to break and free life from the passage of time, from mortality. It is an ‘atomic’ explosion which, at 80 years old from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, is at the same time a warning and reflection on the self -destructive instinct of man. But who also recalls that generative explosion that gave life to humanity, the big bang.
A combination of arts and disciplines. Including fencing, a surprising protagonist of the choreography signed by Poda and to which more than 200 artists are training. The work also replies Saturday 14 June, With new debuts in the cast: Maria Josè Siri, Galeano Salas, Alexander Vinogradov, Matteo Macchioni, Elisabetta Zizzo.
For all the representations, until September, the greatest interpreters of today go up to the Arenian stage: Anna Netrebko He interprets the part of Abigaille, villain of the work for the first time in Italy, for three evenings (17, 24, 31/7), with Olga Maslova (from 9 August) next to the Fenena of Aigul Akhmetshina. Baritones owners will be Luca Salsi and Youngjun Park, While in the role of Zaccaria, Christian Van Horn and Simon Lim also take turns.
Nabucco It is only the first of the 51 show evenings of the 2025 festival, which includes 5 opera titles and 5 between concerts and ballets until 6 September. Confirmed the start hours already in force last summer: the June representations begin at 9.30 pm, those of July at 9.15 pm and in August and September the curtain gets up at 9 pm.
Aida. Directed by Daniel Oren, the ‘Regina’ work of the Arena sees Maria José Siri, Luciano Ganci, Clémentine Margaine, Igor Golovateko and Alexander Vinogradov from 20 June to 4th September, in addition to the debuts in the various roles of Marina Rebeka, Brian Jagde, Aleksandra Kurzak and Roberto Alagna, and the return of artists such as Anna Netrebko (10 and 10 17/8), Gregory Kunde, Ludovic Tézier, Ekaterina Semenchuk, Agnieszka Rehlis.
La Traviata. From the June 27th to August 2nd The traviata He returns to the Arena in the elegant installation of Hugo de Ana created for the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy and missing in the amphitheater since 2016. On the Podio Speranza Scappucci, the main guest director at the Royal Opera House in London, a musician appreciated all over the world and a face known in Italy also as a co-deductive of the TV program The joy of music. In the Arena he directed a single date, four years ago: the Verdian Requiem Mass. It is therefore to its debut in an opera production. Next to her an exceptional cast: Violetta is the American soprano Angel Blue, who debuts in the Arena, with which Rosa Feola and Nadine Sierra take turns. In the role of Alfredo, Galeano Salas, Enea Scala and Dmitry Korchak alternate with Enkhbat, Salsi and Tézier. For two performances, and one of Aida, Francesco Ommassini, Venetian director applauded in important national theaters, in Moscow and Soul, already driving the Arenian artistic complexes in the lyrical and symphonic seasons at the Philharmonic Theater, begins.
Carmen. Bizet’s work reports in the Arena La Siviglia vivida and cinematographic by Franco Zeffirelli from 4 July to 3 September. The protagonist Aigul Akhmetshina, a reference Carmen of our day, who returns after the triumph of last season. Alisa Kolosova and Anita Rachvelishvili alternate with her. Next to them the couple of art and life Kurzak-Alagna, but also the tenors Meli, Beczała, De Tommaso, Eyvazov (on his debut as Don Josè), the Soprani Mariangela Sicilia and Daniela Schillaci, the baritones Erwin Schrott, Luca Micheletti, Giorgi Manoshvili. On the podium Francesco Ivan Ciampa and on stage over 500 choirs, white voices, miments, figures, dancers and the dance company Antonio Gades.
Rigoletto. From 8 August to 6 September Rigoletto returns to the historical setting which, with the scenes of Raffaele del Savio, reconstructs the first of the work in the Arena in 1928, signed by Ettore Fagiuoli, Architect and first scenographer of the amphitheater for over twenty years. The director Michele Spotti, after the success of the Turandot inaugural of 2024, returns to the leaders of the Arenian artistic complexes and great voices, including Enkhbat, Salsi and Park as the protagonist. The sopranos Nadine Sierra, Erin Morley and Rosa Feola give life to Gilda, seduced by the Duke of Mantua of the Samoano tenor Penis Pati, at the debut in the Arena, alternating with the Mexican Salas. Gianluca Buratto and, in this work and in the other of the Festival, established interpreters and young people emerging from all over the world also in the roles alongside, such as Sofia Koberidze, Jan Antem, Carlo Bosi, Nicolò Ceriani, Francesca Maionchi, Vincent Ordonneau, Abraham Rosalen, Daniela Cappiello, Matteo Macchioni, Gabriele Sagona, Riccardo Ramaz, Chikviladze, Giulio Mastrototaro.
To the 5 opera titles are added the 8 evenings-events between dance and concerts. Many and different events in a single date.
Jonas Kaufmann in work. The tenor returns to the Arena as the protagonist of a great gala on August 3: an evening entirely dedicated to Italian work, of which Kaufmann is one of the most requested interpreters all over the world.
Carmina Burana. Orchestra and choir with full ranks are called to perform the Carmina Burana of Orff on August 15, directed by Andrea Battistoni With the voices of Erin Morley and the counter -tenth Raffaele Pe.
Vivaldi Vivaldi. In co -production with Balich Wonder Studio, the violinist Giovanni Andrea Zanon is a soloist and master concertator of the Four seasons in Vivaldi Vivaldi. The Four Seasons Imsonsive Concert, on August 27, exactly 300 years after the publication of the famous concerts, in a multimedia show that, this year, in the Arenian Festival just ended, was welcomed by thousands of young people and standing ovation to its world preview.
Roberto Bolle and Friends. Great space for dance in the 2025 bill. Double date on 22 and 23 July for Roberto Bolle and FriendS, a show covered with artedanza that, in an entirely new program, expertly classic, modern and contemporary with the Scaliger étoile bubbles and first dancers from the main stage of the world.
Zorba the Greek. In 2025 the Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis would have turned 100; The Foundation pays homage to him with his most famous work, which became a symbol of dance at the Arena of Verona, for which he was expressly written. After the sold-outs of the single date 2023 and the two dates 2024, Zorba the Greek returns to the Roman theater, this time for three dates, on 26, 27 and 31 August.
