The idea of the opera pulling headlines might seem a bit anachronistic; a niche interest suddenly becoming the whole of the zeitgeist. But this is exactly what Festival Verdi has become over its 20 years in current existence.
Once merely a regional phenomenon, Festival Verdi has ballooned into something of a Super Bowl for opera enthusiasts, particularly for lovers of Giuseppe Verdi, whose vast and versatile catalogue of works have been subject to countless interpretations. By far Italy’s most accomplished and celebrated opera composer, Giuseppe Verdi was born in the Parma area and often used the grand Teatro Regio as the venue of choice for many of his operas. The theater stands to this day, and the Festival Verdi works to keep the important legacies of Parma, Verdi, and the theater itself alive.
Perhaps the most unexpected aspect of Festival Verdi is just how dynamic and exciting it is. Indeed, the city was fizzling with energy for every weekend of the festival, which ran from 24 September to 13 October 2022. Advertising for the Festival Verdi hung on walls and under street lamps throughout the city. Television stations interviewed various singers in the productions. Even the train schedule is perfected so viewers can easily return to Milan in the same evening.
Teatro-Regio. Donazioni
The opening weekend performances were rife with drama both on and off stage thanks to Parma’s uniquely vocal and passionate audience of opera enthusiasts. A performance of La Forza Del Destino was stellar, though some of the Parma-based audience found the use of a chorus from Bologna to be offensive enough warrant a shower of paper confetti with the complaint typed on each strand.
An extremely bold staging of one of Verdi’s most complex operas, Simon Boccanegra, garnered jeers and some spirited conversation across the antique theater after a scene opened with artificial animals being hung on meat hooks suspended over the stage.
The following night, the acclaimed operatic soprano Lisette Oropesa was singing Violetta’s ‘Sempre Libera’ from Verdi’s La Traviata, as an encore for her recital, before she was joined by an audience member who played against her as the missing tenor.
Mercifully, Messa Da Requiem, a choral concert, received a standing ovation and no major critiques.
All of these moments were good news to Anna Maria Meo, the director of the Teatro Regio. “People should react. This is how you keep the theater alive.” This couldn’t be any more different than the opening nights at New York City’s Metropolitan Opera. There, taking place only a few weeks later, classic cues of American respect and praise took center stage, where audience members cannot feel so entitled to receive works in the same way as those in Parma. This is by the virtues of raw legacy, cultural proximity, and simple traditions.
We attended the opening weekend of the festival with the International Friends of the Festival Verdi organization, which is the official American outpost for Verdi lovers, created in 2017 by James Miller. Miller, who fell in love with Italy and Verdi years prior, remains president of the non-profit organization and has the ambition to bring an edition of the festival to the United States. For now, the organization enjoys executive leadership by Silvia Frieser as well as an intimate relationship with the Teatro Regio in Parma. This relationship affords members of the group rare opportunities to encounter Verdi and the workings of the theater in exclusive ways, along with immersive tours of the region in which Parma is situated, Emilia-Romagna.
Image: International Friends of the Festival Verdi
The organization meets on two occasions, once for a gathering in New York City (we joined the Friends of the Festival Verdi for a spirited gala earlier this year) and again in Parma for an immersive, multi-day tour of the area and its attractions, along with attendance at a number of premieres.
Explore all that the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna has to offer here. Learn more about the Festival Verdi and the Teatro Regio here. You can learn more about the International Friends of the Festival Verdi and explore membership options here.