Figures of 101st Arena di Verona Opera Festival

An edition that will remain in history thanks to records and sellouts, great anniversaries and important debuts. In the spotlight was the 101st edition of the Arena di Verona Opera Festival, which closed after three months and 50 nights of live performances, recording the highest ever revenues – a total of 33 million 620 thousand euros. Thus, the centennial season has come to an end. Amphitheater attendance is up, with 417,354 spectators in the summer of 2024, 15,000 more than last year. The internationality of the majority of the audience (57% from abroad) from 136 different countries was confirmed, including first-time attendees Barbados, Cambodia, and Aruba. Germany remains the leader, with increased viewers from the USA, Canada, Spain, and Korea. Youth is also increasing (+3% under 30, +5% in the 30-40 age group).

The world of live entertainment has been growing since the last report by the Italian society of authors and publishers SIAE. And last year, the opera was able to count on 2.1 million viewers. The Verona Arena, with three months of festivals, accounts for nearly 20% of the country’s festivals.

Numerous sellouts were recorded during the 2024 season – as many as 16. “Turandot,” the first piece on the playbill, drew four sellouts and more than 40,000 spectators. And this became a new record in the history of the Arena Foundation. The premiere on Saturday, June 8, collected 1 million 22 thousand euros of revenue, which was not seen in any night at the Arena. For 15 years, the record belonged to Domingo’s Gala Concert on July 24, 2009, which was directed by the current deputy artistic director of the Arena Foundation, Stefano Trespidi. A rich and impressive installation designed by Franco Zeffirelli will be the protagonist in Seoul, South Korea from October 12 to 19. The box office and attendance queen is Carmen, which ended the festival on September 7 with the last of 9 performances. The peak of sales was recorded in the second half of July.

AUTHORITY. The festival opened and closed the 2024 season with a sold-out Arena, which was also attended by top Italian and foreign leaders, including President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, President of the Senate Ignazio La Russa, President of the Chamber of Deputies Lorenzo Fontana, who returned on September 6 with representatives of the G7 parliaments and President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola. As well as ministers, state secretaries, Italian ambassadors to the world, and UNESCO representatives.

ANNIVERSARIES. Among the great celebrations of 2024 are opera singing in Italy, intangible heritage of UNESCO, the centenary of Giacomo Puccini’s death, three hundred years of Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, one hundred years of director Gianfranco De Bosio, and two hundred years of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. And the 250th anniversary of the Financial Guard was celebrated with a performance by the Financial Guard Band and a gong by the athletes of the Italian national team.

STARS AND DEBUTS. A season that will remain in history also because of its artistic quality. Great stars have returned to the Arena stage: Anna Netrebko, Jonas Kaufmann, Yusiv Eyvazov, Ludovic Tezier, Ekaterina Semenchuk, Francesco Meli, Roberto Alagna, Luca Micheletti, Vittorio Grigolo, Elena Stikhina, Luca Salsi, Roberto Bolle, and Placido Domingo. As well as important debuts: Aigul Akhmetshina, Pretty Yende, Erin Morley, Juliana Grigoryan, Rene Barbera, Igor Golovatenko, Marta Torbidoni, Paolo Bordogna.

National and international media coverage was fundamental: indeed, there were 255 accredited newspapers and broadcasters, corresponding to a total of 1200 people. And more than 5200 articles and reports have been published online, in print, on radio and television from around the world, dedicated to the 101st Festival.

A rich and varied calendar with seven opera productions on the Arena stage, including Aida in the 1913 version and the 2023 “crystal” version, the first gala, four concerts including the groundbreaking Viva Vivaldi, and four evenings devoted to ballet: two at the Arena with Roberto Bolle & Friends and two at the Roman Theater with Zorba the Greek.

“At the end of 2024 Festival, I want to bring attention to the 1415 people who made it possible,” said Cecilia Gasdia, superintendent of the Arena di Verona Foundation. My warmest and most sincere thanks go to all of them, those in every office, sector, art, and profession, from children to veterans to managers, who worked day and night for the success and enjoyment of the shows. Thanks also to the Board of Directors, the founding members, the Province, all sponsors, and the Columns who support the civic and cultural mission. The results of this 101st season have exceeded our expectations. The Festival itself has been held every day since its preparation with enthusiasm and passion that spread from the Arena to everyone: and it is the image of the rehearsals of the first gala concert that I will carry in my heart, the joy of “meeting soloists from all over the world, professors of orchestras, and artists of theater choirs from all over Italy in a fraternal and universal embrace.”

REPERTORY. The year 2024, which coincided with the new centenary of the history of the Arena di Verona 2024 Opera Festival, brought with it a challenge in putting together a program that proved to be rich and varied, with a total of 50 performances from June 7 to September 7. There were seven opera productions, including a new production, seven evenings, and a ballet on two different days. The opening night of the 101st Great Italian Opera Heritage of Humanity Festival, organized by the Ministry of Culture in collaboration with the Arena di Verona Foundation and the state TV channel RAI Culture, with the participation of SIAE, was truly exceptional. The event, broadcast live around the world, marked the inclusion of Italian opera singing in UNESCO’s Intangible Heritage of Humanity, a multi-year process in which the Arena Foundation was actively involved. The first part, devoted to symphonies and choruses from bel canto to Puccini, under the direction of Maestro Riccardo Muti, was followed by an anthology of famous arias from the great lyric repertory of the nineteenth century, performed by twenty of the greatest artists of our time under the direction of Francesco Ivan Ciampa.

2024 is Puccini’s year, 100 years after the Maestro’s death, and the Arena di Verona honored him with three titles: Turandot in June had four sold-out shows in Franco Zeffirelli’s fabulous production with costumes by Oscar-winner Emy Wada; two days of La Bohème were successful in July: a new production with scenes by Guillermo Nova and Alfonso Signorini’s Arena debut as director; four more sold-out Tosca shows in August, and four more concerts with Hugo De Ana starring in the show. The Argentine director, set and costume designer is also responsible for the hilarious production of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, revived after last year’s success in a total of seven performances. Verdi’s Aida, the queen of Amphitheater opera, was staged in two different sets: for the first ten nights, Stefano Poda’s innovative power of imagination flooded the Amphitheater with light for important debuts, and for five more performances, starting on August 10 (exactly 111 years after its premiere at the Arena), the public was able to revisit the production designed by Gianfranco de Bosio (for his centenary) to reconstruct the first Aida of 1913. Bizet’s Carmen has been staged in nine performances, in a classical and cinematic production, with which Zeffirelli made his Arena debut, again this year with great voices and important innovations.

The major lyric and symphonic concerts of the Arena’s large ensembles have returned on the evenings of the festival: Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, commemorating the bicentennial of its premiere, and Orff’s much-loved Carmina Burana. 55 years after his Italian debut in Verona, Plácido Domingo returned with Iberian artists and dancers to pay homage to the Arena and the zarzuela in an unforgettable Noche Española, and the absolute novelty was the immersive show Viva Vivaldi, created in collaboration with Balich Wonder Studio, in which the orchestra, led by violin soloist Giovanni Andrea Zanon, offered the Arena’s new audience the famous Four Seasons with special effects and high-definition images. A magnificent dance reaffirmed Roberto Bolle’s étoile on a double date with international friends, and the ball in the Arena recorded a double sellout under the symbolic title “Zorba the Greek” at the Roman Theater.

ARTISTS. The great artists of the international opera scene have confirmed their connection with the Arena of Verona, along with many talented young people. A total of 120 of today’s best voices, dance stars, and masters took to the stage of the 101st Festival; 35 of them made their Amphitheater debuts, some of them brilliant and long-awaited, receiving a great response from audiences and critics. Obviously, some great artists have left their mark, accepted by the Arena’s audience, such as sopranos Anna Netrebko, Aleksandra Kurzak, Maria José Siri, mezzo-sopranos Vasilisa Berzhanskaya, Ekaterina Semenchuk, Clémentine Margaine, tenors Jonas Kaufmann, Francesco Meli, Yusif Eyvazov, Vittorio Grigolo, Gregory Kunde, Roberto Alagna, Piotr Beczała, Juan Diego Flórez, as well as a Plácido Domingo, baritones Luca Salsi, Ludovic Tézier, Nicola Alaimo, Amartuvshin Enkhbat, basses Alexander Vinogradov, Riccardo Fassi, Marko Mimica; stars Roberto Bolle, Nicoletta Manni, Melissa Hamilton, Eleana Andreoudi, Liudmila Konovalova, Giorgi Potskhishvili, and Compañia soloist Antonio Gades.

NEXT FESTIVAL. Works, concerts, and galas for Summer 2025 are on sale now. The program of the 102nd Arena di Verona Opera Festival will open on June 13 with a new production of Nabucco, designed by Stefano Poda. And it will continue through September 6, 2025 with Aida Crystal, La Traviata, Carmen, Rigoletto, Roberto Bolle & Friends, Carmina Burana, and Jonas Kaufmann in opera.