The 69th edition of the Festival dei Due Mondi (Festival of the Two Worlds) in Spoleto, the first under the leadership of the new Artistic Director Daniele Cipriani, draws to a close this evening.
For 17 days, the Umbrian town has hosted debuts, avant-garde productions and those by established artists. Cipriani wished for the Festival to return to its roots.
The Festival was founded in Spoleto by composer Gian Carlo Menotti in 1958. Menotti, one of the most influential figures in 20th-century opera, envisioned the event as a cultural bridge between Europe and the United States – hence the name “Festival of the Two Worlds” – where artists from different backgrounds could meet, collaborate, and present their work to an international audience, with a broad palette of works drawn from music, opera, drama, dance, theatre and the visual arts.
The Festival has a unique atmosphere with its lively piazzas and streets bustling with people until late at night, artists mingling with the inhabitants and the public, and bringing theatre onto the streets so that it becomes a collective experience for the whole town.
At today’s press conference, Cipriani said,
It has been a great honour, but also a huge responsibility to direct, for the first time, the Festival that was conceived, created and cherished by Gian Carlo Menotti. I decided to have two outstanding consultants by my side: Beatrice Rana and Leo Muscato.
I have worked to place myself at the service of the Festival, to listen to its history, to rediscover its roots and, from those roots, to nurture new branches and new perspectives. The real added value lies not only in the success of each single event, but in the ability to transform a town into a community united by art.
The 70th edition will take place from 25 June to 11 July 2027, and following on from this year’s theme ‘Roots’, next year’s will be ‘Visions’ “because roots only make sense if they continue to shape the future”.
The 69th edition of the Festival dei Due Mondi saw over 35,000 tickets sold and record-breaking takings of almost €1,100,000.
Cipriani added:
These are impressive figures, but what makes them truly significant is the way in which they were achieved: by considerably expanding the Festival’s artistic programme, not merely to ‘pad the numbers’, but to offer an even richer and more varied programme – ranging from classical to contemporary dance, from chamber music to major symphonic concerts, right through to pop performances by Arisa and MIKA and to David Szauder’s artificial intelligence research.
Our choices stem from the belief that a festival like this should invite everyone to step beyond their own boundaries: those who come for a concert may discover dance, whilst those who come for an opera may be surprised by digital art. Our mission is not to confirm the audience’s tastes, but to broaden them, creating opportunities for curiosity to make new discoveries.
This year, the Festival presented 121 shows and cultural events, totalling 290 performances. 1,057 artists from 28 countries were supported by a team of 354 people, including employees, collaborators, technicians and staff at the various venues.
There were 17 world premieres, 9 original productions created for the Festival, 6 European premieres, 12 Italian premieres, 3 site-specific projects and 7 video-mapping projections on the façades of Spoleto’s iconic buildings and landmarks.
Samuel Barber’s opera Vanessa, with a libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti, conducted by Sora Elisabeth Lee and directed by Leo Muscato, proved to be one of the most acclaimed moments of the festival, thanks to a reading that highlighted universal themes such as memory, waiting and the wounds that span generations.
The magnificent Piazza Duomo was the beating heart of the Festival. The sold-out MIKA Symphonique concert witnessed a meeting between contemporary pop music and the richness of symphonic sound from the Orchestra of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, the Choir of the Teatro Lirico Sperimentale and the baton of Simon Leclerc.
Spoleto welcomed Yannick Nézet-Séguin for the first time, conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, with pianist Beatrice Rana.
Pop singer Arisa, who possesses the most unique and beautiful voice among current Italian singers, thrilled the audience with new symphonic arrangements of her repertoire.
The Festival closes this evening with a grand Final Concert in Piazza Duomo, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda and the Filarmonica Teatro Regio Torino. The programme ranges from Menotti to Bernstein and Dvořák, illustrating the dialogue between Europe and America that lies at the heart of the Festival’s DNA.
Among the performances that were most highly acclaimed by the public – with over 60 sold-out shows – were the Dance Marathon at the Teatro Romano, which brought some of the world’s greatest ballet stars back to Spoleto and culminated in the world premiere of a new version of The Rite of Spring with Sergio Bernal and an ensemble of sixteen dancers.
The dance section also saw large audiences for Seven Ages at the Rocca Albornoziana, Rocìo Molina‘s workshop-style piece, Daniil Simkin‘s Sons of Echo project and Benjamin Millepied’s Du bout des lèvres.
In theatre, Platonov, directed by Peter Stein, brought the sheer depth and humanity of Chekhov’s early work to the audience. Educazione sentimentale, starring Giuseppe Fiorello and directed by Ivan Cotroneo, also drew large audiences: a production that, with intelligence and sensitivity, reflects on models of maleness and the emotional development of a contemporary man.
Serena Sinigaglia’s Eumenidi. Oreste è salvo! was particularly powerful, staged in the Basilica of San Salvatore, a UNESCO World Heritage Site which reopened to the public after ten years of closure following the 2016 earthquake.
The concert by Mario Brunello and Giovanni Sollima was also a great success, as they transformed the dialogue between their cellos into a musical journey through diverse repertoires, cultures, and eras.
Finally, this year’s Jazz Club at Palazzo Collicola, in collaboration with New York’s Lincoln Centre, brought the Festival’s nights to life, becoming a spontaneous meeting place every night for the public, artists, staff and guests.
