Opera: San Carlo Festival, Valcuha to open with 'Carmen'

Naples - 'Carmen' by Bizet is set to open the 4th edition of the San Carlo Opera Festival, the summer event of the Teatro Massimo of Naples, with the theater's musical director Juraj Valcuha on the podium, directed by Daniele Finzi Pasca. This will be the first of the four operas scheduled, one more than last year. On July 8, it will be the turn of "Il trovatore" by Verdi, with Joseph Caballe' Domenech conducting the orchestra; on July 22, a new version of 'Soiree Roland Petit' with Pink Floyd Ballet, for the first time at the opera house in Naples; the festival will end on September 12 with 'Zorba il Greco', for a total of 19 shows.

"The Festival, which will take place once again this year, is an initiative created by the Foundation as part of the Napoli Città Lirica project, with the support of the Campania Regional Administration. The purpose is to make culture, opera and ballet more accessible to the general public through a programme of well-known but nevertheless prestigious works, dedicated also to the large number of tourists in the summer season," explains Rosanna Purchia, the director of Teatro San Carlo. Last year, with three operas, the Festival had more than 25,000 spectators, of which 60% were foreigners and two-thirds European, totaling 800,000 with several sold-out evenings.