Jun22596 16 | LUXlife Magazine Best Exclusive Cultural Experience 2023 - Italy The Arena di Verona, a Roman amphitheatre in Piazza Bra, Verona, was originally built in the first century AD. The colossal structure is the third largest Roman amphitheatre still in existence and continues to be used for cultural events that spread musical art and education to the community. The Arena di Verona Opera Festival began in 1913 and has celebrated 100 seasons of beloved operas and timeless masterpieces. For over a hundred years, the Arena has been transformed every summer into the largest open-air opera house in the world. Verona is fondly referred to as ‘little Rome’ for its popularity, the preservation of its artefacts, and its own ‘little Colosseum’. Although half the size of the Flavian Amphitheatre in Rome, the Arena di Verona possesses 13,000 effective seats and an average of 1420 people work the season each year. This includes 144 musicians, 224 choir singers, 72 dancers, 309 between actors and extras, 200 ushers, 80 stage technicians, 69 seamstresses and dressers, and many more. On average, 50 evenings per season will bring in over 400,000 spectators. The Fondazione Arena di Verona was founded in 1998 after the transformation of autonomous Italian opera bodies into foundations governed by private law. The foundation manages the Opera Festival in the summer and the Artistic Season of Teatro Filarmonico in the winter. The Arena di Verona Opera Festival began in 1913 with the first performance of Aida, commissioned by the tenor Giovanni Zenatello and the producer Ottone Rovato, to celebrate centenary of Giuseppe Verdi’s birth. The history of the Fondazione Arena di Verona Orchestra began in 1913, and throughout the years, conductors have alternated in terms of training, culture, and style. The podium has seen three conductorcomposers who conducted their own works: Pietro Mascagni, I l Piccolo Marat in 1921; Riccardo Zandonai, Giulietta e Romeo in 1939; and Mikis Theodorakis, Zorba il greco in 1988. The Orchestra now travels worldwide with its varied repertoire of baroque, romantic, and contemporary music. Notable performances include when the orchestra took Tosca to Beijing, Aida at the Tokyo International Forum Hall, Turandot and Rigoletto in Oman at the Royal Opera House di Muscat. © Foto Ennevi/Fondazione Arena di Verona
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