Spotlight interview
Interview with Cecilia Gasdia, General Manager & Artistic Director, Arena di Verona Opera Festival
The Arena is a unique historic venue hosting world-class opera: what is on the programme for 2023 and where will the festival-goers come from?
In 2023, we will be celebrating the 100th edition of the Arena di Verona Opera Festival with a programme featuring some of the most successful operas in the Festival’s history. Eight titles: Aida, Carmen, The Barber of Seville, Rigoletto, La Traviata, Nabucco, Tosca and Madama Butterfly, five extraordinary evenings, including dance by Roberto Bolle and Friends, three stage performances with Juan Diego Flórez, Plácido Domingo and Jonas Kaufmann, and for the first time, a symphonic concert with the Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro alla Scala, for a total of 50 unmissable evening performances from 16 June to 9 September 2023.
50% of the Arena di Verona’s guests come from all over the world. An international audience, from 117 countries, attracted by the wonders of the Veneto region and the desire to live the ‘Italian dream’.
This November operators will be attending the Global European Marketplace to explore future product options and build new partnerships. Looking ahead to 2023/24 and beyond, how do you work with the planning cycle for long-haul operators?
Sales for the Arena di Verona Opera Festival have always been planned well in advance. We are fully aware of the long-haul needs of the industry and here at Arena di Verona Opera Festival, we have always been careful to present you in advance with a preview of the programme for the coming season.
We offer options for groups and on request, pre-show, we also organise dinners under the stars on the Arena terrace, backstage visits, and the possibility of having an exclusive archway of our theatre for a light dinner.
Verona itself is a beautiful city, and often one that is only visited briefly between overnight destinations. In addition to the Arena, what do you recommend visitors explore?
Verona is one of the best known cities in the Veneto region. Its history and monuments are known all over the world, also thanks to the story of Shakespeare’s lovers Romeo and Juliet.
The city offers a wealth of art and culture, with monuments, museums, churches, historic villas, fine wineries, and a vast province that includes an extraordinary variety of natural sites such as Lake Garda and the Pre-Alps. Its strategic location, combined with an efficient railway and motorway network, and its international airport, make it strategically accessible and well-connected to major Italian cities and beyond.
