Caracalla Festival 2024

The Caracalla Festival 2024, the summer programme of the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, which takes place from 3 June to 10 August in the evocative soazi of the Baths of Caracalla, is back in full swing. The 4,500-seat arena and the Teatro del Portico, in the area of the so-called Temple of Jupiter, this year welcome new and different artistic experiences, including:

• The debut at the opera of archistar Massimiliano Fuksas with Tosca and Turandot.
• The elegance of Dior in the dance nights with Eleonora Abbagnato.
• The return of Roberto Bolle.
• Walt Disney 's great cinema with music performed live.
• The 100th anniversary tribute to Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue with Wayne Marshall.
• Contemporary circus, theatre and a film festival celebrating Puccini on the centenary of his death.
• Great voices of opera such as Sonya Yoncheva, Vittorio Grigolo, Angela Meade and Brian Jadge.
• Pop stars such as Ornella Vanoni, Fiorella Mannoia, Francesco De Gregori, John Legend, Antonello Venditti and many others.

OPERA

From 5 July to 9 August: Tosca.
A hundred years after Puccini's death, the Caracalla Festival pays homage to the great composer with two new productions of Tosca and Turandot with creative design and sets by Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas, making their opera debut. On the podium, Antonino Fogliani. In the role of Tosca alternate Carmen Giannattasio and Sonya Yoncheva, while Cavaradossi is played by Saimir Pirgu, Vittorio Grigolo and Arsen Soghomonyan. The part of Scarpia is performed by Claudio Sgura and Roberto Frontali.

From 16 July to 10 August: Turandot.
In the title role, two exceptional performers: Angela Meade and Lise Lindstrom. In the part of Calaf, Luciano Ganci, Brian Jagde and Arsen; in that of Liù, Maria Grazia Schiavo and Juliana Grigoryan. On the podium, Donato Renzetti. Orchestra and chorus, conducted by Ciro Visco, with the participation of the Choral Singing School, are those of the Rome Opera House.

The two operas are directed by Francesco Micheli; costumes are by Giada Masi; videos by Luca Scarzella.

DANCE

9 and 10 July: Le notti romane di Dior (Dior's Roman Nights), an evening combining fashion, music and dance starring Eleonora Abbagnato who, together with the étoile, first dancers, soloists and the Corps de Ballet of the Rome Opera, wears the creations by Maria Grazia Chiuri of the Maison Dior created for two different ballets: Nuit Romaine and Nuit Dansée. Among the principal performers are étoile Rebecca Bianchi and principal dancer Michele Satriano. On the podium of the Foundation Orchestra goes Alvise Casellati.

19 and 20 July: Roberto Bolle and Friends, once again this year, the world ballet icon is the undisputed star of the unmissable Caracalla Festival event.

CONCERTS

On 23 July: Fantasia Disney - Live in concert, Walt Disney's great animation in a symphonic concert that also embraces cinema. On the podium, Timothy Brock conducts the score performed live by the Orchestra dell'Opera di Roma, while some of the highlights of Fantasia (1940) and its sequel Fantasia 2000 are projected on the big screen.

On 30 July: Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin. Wayne Marshall, in the dual role of pianist and conductor, pays tribute to the 100th anniversary of this extraordinary musical composition, a masterful synthesis of cultured music, jazz and blues. Among the pieces on offer: Porgy and Bess, An American in Paris and the overture from the musical Girl Crazy. Also on the programme is the suite Three Dance Episodes from Leonard Bernstein's On the Town.

CINEMA

The Piccolo Cinema Puccini film festival is also dedicated to Puccini, with three evenings at the Teatro del Portico.

• On 27 June, the great composer lives again through Puccini e la fanciulla (Puccini and the maiden) by Paolo Benvenuti (2008) and the period film Un giorno con Puccini (A day with Puccini, circa 1918), restored and made available by the Cineteca di Bologna.
• 1 July is instead dedicated to three re-readings of the story of Madame Butterfly, with the Italian premiere of Madame Butterfly's Illusion by Wagoro Arai (1940, from the National Film Archive of Japan), Aria by Pjotr Sapegin (2001) and M. Butterfly by David Cronenberg (1993).
• On 4 July, two films inspired by Tosca: a fragment, restored by the Cineteca di Bologna, of Alfredo De Antoni's Tosca (1918) and Avanti a lui tremava tutta Roma by Carmine Gallone (1946) with Anna Magnani.

THEATRE

The Teatro del Portico hosts:

• on 29 June and 2 July Massimiliano Finazzer Flory pays homage to Puccini with Vissi d’arte, vissi d’amore. Aspettando Giacomo Puccini, a reading with live musical interludes combining Puccini's centenary with that of the first radio broadcast.
• On 17 and 20 July, Valerio Magrelli is on stage with Romantici&Co., a reconnaissance on the theme of Romanticism and its evolution from the 19th century to today.

CONTEMPORARY CIRCUS

The great novelty of Caracalla 2024, again on the occasion of Puccini's centenary, are the performances by circus artists staged at the Teatro del Portico: on 25 and 26 June, the blucinQue company brings Puccini Dance Circus Opera, per corpi e strumenti (for bodies and instruments). The protagonist is a chorus of women in movement, whose motion in space is structured in aerial and earthy choreographies accompanied by Puccini music, with electronic interference. Women who support themselves, fall and get up again, each time bringing out characteristics, signs and personalities of five protagonists of Puccini's operas: Tosca, Madame Butterfly, Manon Lescaut, Turandot and Mimì.

JAZZ

The Teatro del Portico hosts two concerts on 18 July and 5 August, and three evenings of Late night jazz on 31 July, 2 and 3 August, scheduled at a time that allows opera-goers to attend, staged on the same evenings before the jazz nights.

POP

The eagerly awaited appointments with pop music begin in early June. On the stage of the Teatro Grande are Fiorella Mannoia on 3 June, Francesco De Gregori and Checco Zalone in a duo on 5 June, Ornella Vanoni on 6 June, Samuele Bersani on 7 June, Il Volo on 8 June, John Legend on 10 June, Pooh on 11 and 12 June, Biagio Antonacci on 13 and 14 June, and Antonello Venditti on 18, 19 and 21 June.