Each autumn, when Giuseppe Verdi’s birthday approaches on 10th October, Festival Verdi begins with a full month of music, opera, exhibitions to celebrate the Italian opera composer in his native places.
Inaugurated by the Fondazione Teatro Regio di Parma in 2001, 100 years after the great Maestro’s death, the festival (28 September - 22 October) gathers together many talented artists, including conductors.
The opening evening is on Thursday, 28 September with Jérusalem which will be followed by La Traviata on 29 September and other following days at Teatro Regio di Parma.
On Wednesday, 11 October Lella Costa will bring on stage ‘Traviata. L’intelligenza del cuore’ and the festival will close with ‘La maledizione di Triboletto’.
But there is more than music. In fact,Verdi Off will offer the audience the opportunity to explore Parma and Busseto, Verdi’s hometown. Shows, concerts, installations, dj-sets, talks, screenings on the streets and in the squares of these two places, and all free.
For sure the group ‘Il club dei 27′, funded in 1958 at the bar ‘Grotta Mafalda’ in the historic centre of Parma, will join the festival. The club was born thanks to a group of friends and the Maestro’s lovers who had the idea to give every member the name of Verdi’s operas. The aim of the group is to spread the love for opera and most of all for Verdi’s operas. Every year the 27 members of the club go on pilgrimage to Verdi’s home in Roncole Verdi where they leave 27 red roses and then to his monument to honour his memory with a laurel wreath. A funny curioisty: once you get a Verdi’s opera name as your nickname you cannot leave it, just if you abandon the group or if you pass away.
