A full programme from 22 January to 31 December 2023

Seven opera titles, 12 symphonic concerts, world premieres and timeless classics, special collaborations, great performers and young international talents, concerts for families, and an even richer programme for young people, schools and families ∙ Fondazione Arena di Verona announces for 2023 at the Teatro Filarmonico a full relaunch of its shows and artistic and technical talents in view of the long-awaited Festival number 100. 

The year 2023 is a year of great expectations: if the previous two-year period forced audiences to shy away from the theatre or to attend by buying individual tickets rather than a subscription, next year will be about enjoying a wide-range of programmes for the Artistic Season at the Teatro Filarmonico: the winter home of the Fondazione Arena di Verona. To celebrate the return to the theatres, the Foundation has planned a long and meaningful season with many formulas to renew or resume the connection with the theatre and the pleasure of spending time out and meet people thanks to music.

Together with the usual subscriptions, the Arena Foundation has created new special offers: Fridays in the stalls with a rich selection of operas and concerts (nine titles in one subscription) and two mini-carnets (with a choice of three or six appointments) for those who wish to take it easy or get to know Teatro Filarmonico for the first time.

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The OPERA SEASON, from 22 January to 23 December, includes six not-to-miss appointments, including one with a double title, that combine well-known works and rare jewels, some that had been interrupted by the pandemic and offered for the first time in Verona with the public in person. 

Four performances of the season's grand opening title, LE NOZZE DI FIGARO, a comedy opera in four acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, which is back on stage at the Filarmonico after five years in a new staging by the Fondazione Teatro Nuovo Giovanni da Udine under the direction, sets and costumes by Ivan Stefanutti and lighting by Claudio Schmidt. All performances (22, 25, 27 and 29 January) will be directed by famous maestro Francesco Ommassini.

A tribute to the genius of Franco Zeffirelli is the second title on the programme, AIDA by Giuseppe Verdi, on stage from 12 February through a production created in 2001 by Franco Zeffirelli (direction and sets) for the Busseto Theatre to celebrate the first centenary of Verdi's death, with costumes by Anna Anni, revamped by Lorena Marin, and lighting by Paolo Mazzon. The first performance will be staged on the 100th anniversary of the Florentine Maestro’s birth, who more than anyone could indissolubly link his art and genius to the Arena. The four appointments (with additional shows on 15, 17 and 19 February) will be directed by Massimiliano Stefanelli, the same maestro who pioneered this production, defined by Zeffirelli's own admission one of his all-time favourites. 

On stage with four performances from 26 March to 2 April is WERTHER, the masterpiece by Jules Massenet, who turned Goethe's words into music and thus becoming a symbol of Romanticism. The tormented love story between young Werther and Charlotte was performed only once at the Teatro Filarmonico in 1978: The title, passionate and enthralling, one of the cornerstones of the French repertoire of all time, will be back on stage in Verona after forty-four years, featuring a modern staging by Stefano Vizioli (direction), Emanuele Sinisi (sets), Anna Maria Heinreich (costumes), Imaginraium Creative Studio (visuals) and produced by OperaLombardia during the peak of the pandemic and now finally available to the public with an exceptional cast led by tenor Dmitry Korchak and mezzo-soprano Vasilisa Berzhanskaya together with some of the most talented young peers.  

The fourth title of the 2023 Opera Season is a production highly anticipated in 2020 and cancelled due to the pandemic: AMLETO, the artistic summa of the Veronese Franco Faccio (1840-1891), a composer and conductor who died prematurely but admired by the greatest musicians of his time. The opera, based on Shakespeare's most famous title, boasted a libretto by Arrigo Boito and was greatly acclaimed at the time of its debut but never offered again in Italy. The four performances from 22 to 29 October represent the first Italian performance of the opera in modern times in the new staging by the Fondazione Arena, directed by Paolo Valerio, a talented Veronese and former director of the Teatro Stabile, with sets and projection design by Ezio Antonelli. On stage will be 27-year-old Alessandro Bonato, also from Verona, main conductor of the Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana, the youngest maestro in this role among all the Italian concert orchestras.  

Successfully featured in 2021 in streaming, the fifth appointment of the Opera Season 2023 (from 19 to 26 November) brings to the attending audience the diptych that combines IL PARLATORE ETERNO, an unpublished comedy by Amilcare Ponchielli, performed for the first time at the Filarmonico in 2021, with the intense one-act opera IL TABARRO by Giacomo Puccini, both Fondazione Arena di Verona productions. The direction of the Parlatore Eterno is by Stefano Trespidi from the Arena, with sets by Filippo Tonon, costume coordination by Silvia Bonetti and lighting design by Paolo Mazzon. The title is juxtaposed with Puccini's penultimate opera, with direction by Paolo Gavazzeni and Piero Maranghi, sets by Leila Fteita, costumes by Silvia Bonetti and lighting by Paolo Mazzon. Gianna Fratta is back to lead the Arena Orchestra, a conductor already celebrated in her Verona debut in the recent diptych dedicated to 20th century theatre. 

The Opera Season will end with one of Verdi's most exciting and appreciated titles, UN BALLO IN MASCHERA, which had not been offered by the Foundation's winter programme for twenty-one years and now introduced from 17 to 23 December in the historical staging of the Teatro Regio di Parma in co-production with the Auditorio de Tenerife, a project born from the precious rediscovery and restoration of the sets designed by Giuseppe Carmignani in 1913 and brought back on stage under the direction of Marina Bianchi and costumes by Lorena Marin, with the orchestra led by acclaimed maestro Francesco Ivan Ciampa.

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The 2023 SYMPHONIC SEASON will start on 24 February and, alternating with the opera events, will continue until 2 December with 12 appointments featuring the Chorus and Orchestra of the Fondazione Arena di Verona led by internationally renowned conductors and soloistsand, many talented young artists making their Verona debut, among which: Alekseenok, Angius, Cadario, Cañón-Valencia, Korchak, Krylov, Maionchi, Manoshvili, Monzò, Ommassini, Onofri, Paszkowski, Peleggi, Pirolli, Principe, Ranno, Roma, Salerno, Santonja, Stier, Tirotta, and the contribution of soloists hailing from the first parts of the Arena Orchestra. 

The events will begin under the flag of Mahler with the famous Fifth Symphony, and continue with concertos, serenades, overtures, suites, preludes, and ballets by J. S. Bach, Bartók, Beethoven, F. J. Haydn, Mendelssohn, Milhaud, Mozart, Poulenc, Purcell, Rachmaninov, Saint-Saëns, Schubert, Schumann, Šostakovič, Richard Strauss, and Stravinsky, often premieres for the Teatro Filarmonico. There will be no lack of contemporary music, with programmes including pieces by Berio, Bosso, Gulda, Pärt, as well as important appointments with symphonic-vocal music that will engage the Arena Choir, such as in Rossini's great Messa di Gloria or Fauré's Requiem. 

All concerts will be held on two dates, on Fridays at 8 p.m. (Subscription A shift) and Saturdays at 5 p.m. (Subscription B shift). In addition, the traditional New Year's Eve Concert on 31 December (non-subscription) is confirmed, to await the arrival of 2024 under a veritable celebration of music.

The Artistic Season 2023 continues with the ARENA YOUNG initiatives for school students and staff, universities and academies, including previews, open rehearsals, performances, concerts and dedicated meetings. For each opera there will be an exclusively preview dedicated to schools; for opera and symphony the Return to the Theatre preludes are back introducing the plots and artists with guided listening. Finally, through the Il Teatro si Racconta, the Fondazione Arena will produce new theatre shows dedicated to different school age groups, creating familiarity between the theatre and new audiences. In autumn 2022, the new Family Concerts will also kick off with a double appointment, with programmes and schedules dedicated to the first theatre visits for families, including younger children, and new shows will be offered also in fall 2023. INFORMATION AND BOOKING: Training Office scuola@arenadiverona.it - tel 045 8051933

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The sale of subscriptions for the Opera and Symphonic Seasons at the Teatro Filarmonico with right of first refusal (Season 2022 subscriber confirmations) will start on 30 September and continue until 29 October, while new subscriptions will open from 31 October until supplies last. Subscriptions for the opera season range from 84 to 318 euros depending on the seats chosen, while the subscription for the symphonic season range from 87 to 218 euros.

In addition to traditional subscriptions, we would like to highlight the Carnet open formula with three or six admission tickets starting from 66 euros, which allows creating one’s personalised schedule of appointments with the shows offered by the Fondazione Arena at Teatro Filarmonico. In fact, going past the shift and fixed-seat concept, the carnet allows one to choose across all the performances on the programme and to use the tickets one at a time or globally, for one or more evenings, thus saving on the purchase of an individual ticket. Finally, there is also the Venerdì in Platea option: nine performances including operas and concerts at € 315 (€ 207 for the over-65s, € 126 for the under-30s).

Exclusively for the Opera Season subscribers: the premiere of the new Aida production on 17 June at the Arena (optional). Exclusively for the Symphonic Season subscribers: the Concert of Teatro alla Scala Orchestra and Chorus at the Arena on 31 August (optional) Those who choose the maxi-subscription Opera + Symphonic Season will enjoy a free Poltronissima Gold ticket for one of the two aforementioned events. 

Subscriptions and carnets can be purchased at the Arena di Verona Ticket Office. Tickets for individual operas and concerts will be available for purchase from 14 November 2022 at the Arena di Verona Ticket Office and on www.arena.it.

Subscribers to the Teatro Filarmonico will be also enjoy a special rate (about 30% discount) when purchasing a ticket for the Arena di Verona Opera Festival 2023, edition number 100, with a rich programme already published on the website www.arena.it  

PROGRAMME OF

THE OPERA SEASON 2023 

from 22 January to 23 December

22, 25, 27, 29 January

Le Nozze di Figaro

Comedy for music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte 

Publisher Baerenreiter Verlag, Kassel

Representative for Italy Casa Musicale Sonzogno di Piero Ostali, Milan

Staging Fondazione Teatro Nuovo Giovanni da Udine

ÐÑ

12, 15, 17, 19 February

Aida

An Opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi

Libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Franco Zeffirelli's birth 

Staging by Franco Zeffirelli for the Busseto Theatre on the occasion of the first centenary of Giuseppe Verdi's death, 2001

ÐÑ

26, 29, 31 March · 2 April

Werther

An Opera drama in four acts by Jules Massenet

Libretto by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet, and Georges Hartmann

Staging by Teatri di OperaLombardia 

ÐÑ

22, 25, 27, 29 October

Amleto

Opera tragedy in Four Acts by Franco Faccio

Libretto by Arrigo Boito 

First Italian performance in modern times 

ÐÑ

19, 22, 24, 26 November

Il Parlatore eterno

by Amilcare Ponchielli

Published by Angelo Rusconi

Staging by Fondazione Arena di Verona

Il Tabarro

Opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini

Libretto by Giuseppe Adami

Instruments for reduced orchestra by Ettore Panizza 

Published by Ricordi

Song seller ...

First Lover & Sopranino Voice ...

Tenor voice ...

Second lover ...

Staging by Fondazione Arena di Verona

ÐÑ

17, 20, 22, 23 December

Un Ballo in maschera

by Giuseppe Verdi

Libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni

A judge / A servant of Amelia ...

Historical staging (1913) by the Teatro Regio di Parma in co-production with Auditorio de Tenerife

SYMPHONIC SEASON 2023 

Teatro Filarmonico

from 24 January to 31 December

Friday 24 February - 8:00 p.m.

Saturday 25 February - 5:00 p.m.

1st Concert

Gustav Mahler 

Symphony No. 5 in C# minor

ÐÑ

Friday 3 March - 8:00 p.m.

Saturday 4 March - 8:00 p.m.

2nd Concert

…

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Overture, from Mithridates, King of Pontus KV 87 (KV 74a)

Concert No. 2 in D major for flute and orchestra KV 314 (285d)

Franz Joseph Haydn

Symphony No. 100 in G major 'Miltärsymphonie' Hob:I:100

ÐÑ

Friday 10 March - 8:00 p.m.

Saturday 11 March - 5:00 p.m.

3rd Concert

Richard Strauss

Suite in B♭  major for 13 wind instruments op. 4 TrV 132

Darius Milhaud

La création du monde op. 81a

Friedrich Gulda

Cello and Wind Orchestra Concert

ÐÑ

Friday 7 April - 8:00 p.m.

Saturday 8 April - 5:00 p.m.

4th Concert

Gioachino Rossini

Gloria Mass for soloists, choir and orchestra

ÐÑ

Friday 14 April - 8:00 p.m.

Saturday 15 April - 5:00 p.m.

5th Concert

Ludwig van Beethoven

Symphony No. 7 in A major op. 92

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy

Symphony No. 5 in D major “La Riforma” op. 107 MWV N 15

ÐÑ

Friday 21 April - 8:00 p.m.

Saturday 22 April - 5:00 p.m.

6th Concert

Richard Strauss

Macbeth op. 23

Liebesszene, da Feuersnot op. 50

Suite for orchestra, from Der Rosenkavalier op. 59

ÐÑ

Friday 28 April - 8:00 p.m.

Saturday 29 April - 5:00 p.m.

7th Concert

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy

Ouverture in C major “Trompeten-Ouvertüre” op. 101

Robert Schumann 

Concert in A minor for cello and orchestra op. 129

Franz Schubert

Symphony No. 5 in B♭  major D 485

ÐÑ

Friday 5 May - 8:00 p.m.

Saturday 6 May - 5:00 p.m.

8th Concerto

Johann Sebastian Bach

Suite No. 3 in D major BWV 1068

Brandenburg Concert No. 3 in D major BWV 1048

Igor Stravinsky

Concerto in E♭  major 'Dumbarton Oaks'

Pulcinella, concert suite

ÐÑ

Friday 12 May - 8:00 p.m.

Saturday 13 May - 5:00 p.m.

9th Concert

Sergei Rachmaninov

Concert No. 4 in G minor for piano and orchestra op. 40

Dmitri Šostakóvič

Symphony No. 6 in B minor op. 54

ÐÑ

Friday 19 May - 8:00 p.m.

Saturday 20 May - 5:00 p.m.

10th Concert

Ludvig van Beethoven

Symphony No. 5 in C# minor op. 67

Luciano Berio

Rendering

ÐÑ

Friday 3 November - 8:00 p.m.

Friday 4 November - 5:00 p.m.

11th Concert

Arvo Pärt

Fratres for violin, string and percussion orchestra

Ezio Bosso

Concert No. 1 for “Esoconcerto” violin

Béla Bartók

Divertimento per archi BB 118 SZ 113

ÐÑ

Friday 1 December: 8:00 p.m.

Saturday 2 December: 5:00 p.m.

12th Concert

Henry Purcell

March and Canzona, from Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary Z 860

Camille Saint-Saëns

Prelude, from Le Déluge op. 45

Francis Poulenc

Litanies à la Vierge Noire

Gabriel Fauré

Requiem op. 48

ÐÑ

Sunday 31 December: 9:30 p.m.

End-of-year concert 

(non-subscription) 

______

Conductor

Director

Sets

Costumes 

Lights 

Assistant director and set designer 

Coordination of stage space and furnishings

Flute

Violoncello

Piano

Violin

Soprano

Mezzo-soprano

Tenor

Basso 

Fondazione Arena di Verona’s Orchestra, Choir and Technicians

Fondazione Arena di Verona Orchestra

Choirmaster