The Arena backstage tour

The 44th edition of the Rossini Opera Festival will be held in Pesaro from the 11th to the 23rd August 2023.  The programme includes two new productions (Eduardo e Cristina and Adelaide di Borgogna), the revival of Aureliano in Palmira, Il viaggio a Reims with pupils of the Accademia Rossiniana “Alberto Zedda”, two cantatas (the one for Pope Pius IX and the one, not by Rossini, on the death of Maria Malibran), five concerts and the Petite messe solennelle.

During the inaugural meeting on the eve of the opening of the Festival, the General Administrator Ernesto Palacio declared: “The programme focuses on three rare Rossini serious operas, the first even being the first performance of the work in the new critical edition by the Fondazione Rossini.  This programme is emblematic of the mission of the ROF, which has always aimed from the beginning to rediscover the lesser-known works of Rossini, in particular the serious operas.  The work of the Festival will not come to a halt with having produced every opera in the official list of Rossini’s works; we still have to restore the pastiches, the alternative editions of such opera sas Maometto II or Matilde and we still have no critical edition of L’inganno felice, La Comte Ory or Moïse et Pharaon.”

The President of the Festival, Daniele Vimini, Deputy Mayor of Pesaro, said: “It must be recorded that the Festival and its workers have realized yet another creative and technical effort to convert a problem, the unanticipated unavailability of the Teatro Rossini, an opportunity to imagine new operative solutions for mounting three extremely complex opera productions in one place: the Vitrifrigo Arena.”

Manuela Gasperoni, the Director of staging, had the following to add: “The need to stage three operas on the same stage one after another was an enormous challenge, but our technicians are among the best in Italy, and, therefore, in the world: let us not forget that opera was born in Italy and our country has always been among the leaders in this field: this year’s productions have required months of intense work from all of us.”

At the end of the meeting, Manuela Gasperoni guided those attending through a  backstage visit to the Arena.