Italians don’t just have a passion for food and drink. They also love their music, so today we thought we’d share some of the most exciting musical festivals in Italy taking place this Summer.
Rome Summer Opera Festival, Caracalla Thermal Baths, Rome
Rome’s annual opera festival is spread over nearly three months and includes more than 50 performances. With the exception of a brief period when the normal venue – the open air Terme di Caracalla – was deemed incompatible with social distancing rules, the event has been held here since 1937. It’s certainly a unique backdrop to one of Italy’s best loved music festivals. The festival itself always offers an eclectic mix of musical genres to suit all tastes. This year, Zucchero kicked things off with performances on 30 and 31 May along with one more tonight and another on 4 June. Andrea Bocelli will be performing on 10 June whilst opera performances include Verdi’s La Traviata and Rigoletto. There will also be dance performances by Italian dancer, Roberto Bolle along with a number of concerts featuring music by Gershwin.
Ravenna Festival, Ravenna
Ravenna is a beautiful town in the equally stunning Emilia Romagna region of Italy. It is the perfect backdrop for a Summer music festival, with an eclectic mix of performances taking place in its many piazzas, churches and theatres throughout the town. This year, it’s a chance to enjoy and appreciate opera, classical, dance and jazz performances as well as watch a number of films and attend a number of exhibitions.
Verona Opera Festival, Verona
The Verona Opera Festival celebrated its 100th year in 2023. It’s one of Italy’s most spectacular music festivals taking place in the incredibly well preserved and rather monumental Roman amphitheatre known as the Arena di Verona.
Over the past 100 years, the festival has played host to some of the world’s greatest opera singers. This year will be no exception. The Peruvian opera singer Juan Diego Florez along with Spanish tenor Placido Domingo will both be performing. There will also be a wonderful ballet performance led by Robert Bolle whilst the operas being performed this Summer include Verdi’s Aida, Rigoletto, La Traviata and Nabucco along with Puccini’s Tosca and Madama Butterfly, Bizet’s Carmen and Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia.
Festival dei Due Mondi, Spoleto
The Festival of Two Worlds (Festival dei Due Mondi) is one of Umbria’s most famous festivals. It has been held annually in Spoleto from the end of June through to the beginning of July since it was founded in 1958 by the Italian American composer and librettist Gian Carlo Menotti. The intention behind the original event was to showcase both American and European culture within one harmonious event, with a sister event also being held in South Carolina in the USA. Spoleto was chosen for a number of reasons – the fact that it’s incredibly beautiful, the fact that it boasts not just one but two theatres (the Teatro Nuovo and Teatro Caio Melisso) and also due to the presence of the Piazza del Duomo which is a stunning open air space perfect for holding events on a grand scale. Visitors will be treated to an array of jazz, opera, and classical music performances as well as dance, theatre and cinema events.
Festival Como Citta della Musica, Lake Como
One of Italy’s more recent music festivals, the Festival Como Citta della Musica is now in its sixteenth year. Events are held throughout the town, including in the Arena of Teatro Sociale of Como along with some of the beautiful neoclassical lakeside villas, Medieval towers such as the Torre del Baradello and finally in stunning gardens such as the park at the Villa del Grumello. Once more, it features a range of genres including both dance and music, with everything from opera to jazz.
Sud-Tirol Jazz Festival Alto Adige, South Tyrol
Running since 1982, the South Tyrol Jazz Festival Alto Adige was originally called Jazz Summer and then Jazz & Other. It has grown massively in scale since its early days and now takes place across all parts of South Tyrol and beyond. Nearly 100 concerts will take place across the 10 days in more than 50 different locations and featuring more than 150 musicians who come from all over the world to take part. It includes both traditional and contemporary jazz performances in castles and manor houses, in parks, factory halls, in village squares and even on lakes and rivers.
Musica Riva Festival, Riva del Garda
With a range of musical performances from classical to dance, this is a superb music festival held in the charming and picturesque lakeside town of Riva del Garda on the northern shores of Lake Garda.
Umbria Jazz, Perugia
Umbria Jazz has been held annually in the Umbrian town of Perugia every July since 1973 and will be celebrating its 50th year this Summer. It’s now one of the leading Jazz festivals in the world.
When it started, jazz would predominantly have been heard in small clubs with an occasional performance in a theatre but Umbria Jazz changed all this, suddenly bringing jazz to new audiences of up to 20,000 people at once. Over the past few years the event has attracted international music megastars such as Elton John, Eric Clapton and Alicia Keys. This year performers include Bob Dylan and Herbie Hancock. The biggest names tend to perform at the Santa Giuliana Arena whilst more traditional jazz performers are more often found at the Morlacchi Theatre. The main square in Foligno – Piazza IV Novembre – also hosts a number of free open air concerts each year.
Ravello Music Festival, Ravello
This year the Ravello Music Festival is in its 70th edition, making it one of Italy’s oldest music festivals. In the 1930s, the Naples San Carlo Orchestra performed a number of times in Ravello. Their concerts were focused on the music of Richard Wagner, celebrating the fact that the German composer had visited Ravello in 1880. One of these concerts was attended by the Piedmont Royal family. As an expression of gratitude to the family, the town of Ravello dedicated the Belvedere located between the hotels Sasso and Palumbo to the Princess of Piedmont. The idea of the music festival itself only emerged 20 years later but the Belvedere di Villa Ruffolo at the cliff edge remained centre stage and is still the focal point for festival performances today. These days the festival program includes large orchestral events to smaller chamber groups and quartets.
Lake Maggiore plays host to a number of music festivals but this is arguably the most important. The ‘Settimane Musicali‘ is an international classical music festival held annually in the Summer months and which will be celebrating its 62nd year in 2023. It also showcases some more modern forms of art and different genres including theatre and dance. Events are held in historical venues, often opened specifically for the festival.
Moon and Stars, Locarno
OK… so not strictly in Italy but actually in Switzerland, we wanted to at least mention this annual event since it’s another of the great festivals that take place each Summer on Lake Maggiore. It attracts some incredible pop acts each year. This year, some of the artists who will be performing include Ricky Martin, Joss Stone and One Republic. Concerts are held in the central Piazza Grande in Locarno.
Puccini Festival, Torre del Lago
Now in its 69th year, the event first began in 1930 (but was interrupted by both WWII and the recent pandemic).
The festival takes place in the small village of Torre del Lago near Viareggio in Tuscany, home to just 11,000 permanent residents. However, during the festival, its open air concert venue can host more than 40,000 spectators. The venue is located just a few steps from Villa Mausoleum, which is the house where Puccini lived and worked. In 2023, opera featured will inlcude La Boheme, Madame Butterfly, Il Tabarro and Turandot.
Clazz International Music Festival, Mount Amiata
Arcidosso on Mount Amiata in Tuscany will be the setting for Clazz, a very new type of music festival that allows music students to get involved in a truly hands on way. It will give them a chance to further their musical journey, learning from some of the very best musicians. It crosses both classical and jazz idioms, inspiring and nurturing people to be the very best musicians that they can be, regardless of genre.
Macerata Opera Festival, Macerata
Spanning five consecutive weekends, the Macerata Opera Festival gives visitors the chance of watching a live opera performance in the incredible setting of Sferisterio, an open arena surrounded by a long colonnade and offering the most perfect acoustics. In 2023, the three operatic titles being performed include Carmen by Georges Bizet, La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi and Lucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti. As well as these performances there will also be a number of symphonic and dance events to be enjoyed too.
Teatro del Silenzio, Lajatico, Tuscany
The Teatro del Silenzio (Theatre of Silence) is a stunning open air amphitheatre located in Lajatico, the hometown of renowned opera singer, Andrea Bocelli. Built in 2006 by the municipality thanks to the persuasion and hard work of Bocelli and Alberto Bartalini, the venue cleverly uses the natural formations of the hilly landscape.
For almost 365 days of the year the theatre sits in silence. However, every July, Bocelli, the honorary president of the theatre, performs an annual concert there, providing a few days of music and dance for visitors to enjoy.
Summer Jamboree, Senigallia, Le Marche
Senigallia is a charming coastal town in beautiful Le Marche. Every Summer it plays host to the Summer Jamboree, a two-week event which celebrates American culture from the forties and fifties era. It’s an absolutely fantastic fortnight of entertainment and these days can easily claim to be the biggest and most well known festival of its type anywhere in Europe. Visitors wear authentic period dress and it has very much a fun-loving, carefree tone about it. Get your fifties frocks on and join in the many musical events taking place. From rock ‘n’ roll to swing, jive, gospel, country, hillbilly, rhythm ‘n’ blues and doo-wop, it has plenty to entertain!
Rossini Opera Festival, Pesaro, Le Marche
This annual festival is a chance for Pesaro to celebrate its most famous son – Rossini. The entire festival is dedicated to the composer, with an array of both famous and lesser known operas performed each year. We particularly like the fact that it’s an opportunity to hear a lot of young performers participating. In 2023, operas performed will include Petit Messe Solemnelle, Adelaide di Borgogna and Viaggio a Reims.
La Notte della Taranta, Salento, Puglia
La Notte della Taranta (Night of the Taranta) is an evening which pays tribute to Salento’s tarantella dance, the Pizzica Pizzica. It attracts around 300,000 tourists each year to Melpignano who come to take part in the evening. So the story goes, the bite of the tarantula spider (taranta) causes a form of hysteria in its victims who have to then engage in a rather frenzied dance ritual to avoid death. The dance marks the ancient healing ritual to fight the deadly bite. This rather peculiar kind of dance is accompanied by a very particular kind of music – Pizzica. Several types of instrument are used but one of them – the tambourine – is constantly beaten and set in time to a rather frenzied hypnotic dance. It’s a fabulous dance to watch.
Mito Settembre Musica, Turin and Milan
MITO Settembre Musica is an annual music festival which takes place simultaneously in both Turin and Milan. Across the month of September, the two cities are united in a busy calendar of classical music concerts. This year there will be performances of composers such as Leonard, Bernstein, George Gershwin, Antonín Dvořák, Chopin, Vivaldi and Ludwig van Beethoven amongst others.
In short, we’re confident that music lovers are spoilt for choice when it comes to the sheer number and variety of music festivals in Italy this Summer! But, don’t forget that the country has a plethora of other festivals to enjoy too. Check out our guide to the festivals in Italy (Jan to June) and our full calendar of events in Italy from July to December.