After many worldwide successes as Carmen, Elina Garanca now makes her long-awaited debut on the world’s largest opera stage, the nearly 2,000-year-old Arena di Verona. “With perfect diction, [Elina Garanca’s] bohemian is a true stage beast who makes a mockery of life with panache, taunting her lover just out of prison with sarcastic ‘taratata’ and then daring to face an adverse fate with implausible aplomb.” (Crescendo-Magazine.be). Italian film and stage director Franco Zeffirelli also made his debut at the Arena back then with Carmen. On the occasion of his 100th birthday, his three versions were put together for the first time in a “best of” version. The side set painted for the first edition and the large number of people and wide movements that characterized the original production are set back on stage. Highlights of the 2003 and 2009 stagings are skillfully combined with this. The 2022 production is hence something never seen before, which even proposes scenography’s elements that haven’t been realized in the previous stagings, but were originally planned by Zeffirelli.
Arena di Verona Festival 2022: Turandot
The Arena di Verona honours Italian stage director and filmmaker Franco Zeffirelli and his legendary production of Turandot. His imposing cinematographic production reproduces imperial China thanks to its impressive scenery and scenes, enriched by the sumptuous costumes of the Oscar-winning Japanese costume designer Emi Wada. Everything helps to highlight the atmosphere of the drama of enigma per excellence, where life itself is in danger and the answer lies in love, which melts the protagonist’s icy heart. “Netrebko does not merely sing it: she interprets it. What emerges is a character much more human and ultimately truer than usual” (La Stampa)
Il Trovatore
A monumental staging by late legendary director Franco Zeffirelli brings superstar Anna Netrebko to the Arena of Verona where she is giving her much-anticipated debut in one of Giuseppe Verdi’s most popular operas, Il Trovatore. Zeffirelli created a legendary scenery within the Arena, one of the most spectacular open-air venues of the world. Next to Anna Netrebko as Leonora perform Verdi accomplished baritone Luca Salsi as Count di Luna. Yusif Eyvazov returns to the Arena as his powerful-voiced opponent Manrico. MET star Dolora Zajick as Azucena and young rising Italian bass Riccardo Fassi as Ferrando join the prestigious ensemble. The revered master of opera Franco Zeffirelli, who died shortly before the premiere of Il Trovatore, created a legendary scenery with groups of giant sized armoured knights, a fortress turning into a luminous cathedral, an enormous choir, horses, breathtaking fights: “his perhaps best arena production” (Opernglas).