Casa Julia

 

 

 

Fans of both opera and ballet flock to Macerata for its annual "Stagione Lirica" held at the Sferisterio in July and August which is second only to Verona as Italy's best open air venue.

The open-air opera festival in Macerata has its roots in the 19th century.  The Sferisterio was built at the end of the 19th. Century as a sports venue for a local ball game but a century later it was realised it had great acoustics so it became an open air opera "theatre" and, as a neo-classical monument, is among the best in Italy.  Compared with Verona, this is a different side of the Italian coin: Macerata is a regional capital in the quieter region of Le Marche, less popular with foreign tourists but beloved of Italians who flock to the Adriatic coast in this area.  A plus for opera-lovers is that the Rossini festival in Pesaro, not far away, is held at nearly the same time as the Sferisterio season; but the rare Rossini operas it stages are all, alas, indoor.  Other venues for music and opera are Fabriano, Urbino, Fano and at Loreto, where an international choir festival takes place in April.

 

 

Designed by Antonio Galli, known as il Bibiena, the style of theatre is characterised "by the boxes that follow the slightly curved profile of the bell-shaped auditorium, the arches of the lowered boxes, the loggias inserted between the architrave pilasters, the balustrades with their little pillars, the connection between the auditorium and the proscenium by means of archways, the typical plumes of feathers that link the top row of boxes with the ceiling. Everything, even down to the walls which are appointed like the courtyard of a palace and the boxes with their little balconies, confers on the place its unmistakable feel.

A recent refurbishment (1984-1989) restored the original architectural appearance of the theatre. It consisted of a philological operation involving a number of steps which permitted the restitution of the original harmony: the removal of those unfortunate artificial elements which, during the course of the 19th century, had inappropriately modified the appearance of the building; the restoration of the 18th-century polychrome decorations in stucco; the refurbishment of the decorations on the ceiling of the auditorium, the work of Samoggia; and finally, where necessary, the adopting materials as similar as possible to the original ones. Thanks to this work, Macerata is able to boast a fine example of the best in Italian late-Baroque tradition.

 

Sferisterio	Sferisterio	Sferisterio	Sferisterio	Teatro Lauro Rossi	Teatro Lauro Rossi
Vespro della Beata Vergine	Faust	La Forza del Destino	I Lombardi alla prima Crociata	Juditha Triumphans	Attila
Claudio Monteverdi	Charles Gounod	Giuseppe Verdi	Giuseppe Verdi	Antonio Vivaldi	Giuseppe Verdi
29 July 2010	30 July 2010 3, 7 August 2010	31 July 2010 4, 8 August 2010	1, 5, 9 August 2010	6, 10 August 2010	6, 10 August 2010
Performance starts 21:00	Performance starts 21:00	Performance starts 21:00	Performance starts 21:00	Performance starts 18:00	Performance starts 21:00

 

Rossini Opera festival 2010 in Pesaro  www.rossinioperafestival.it

 

 

Gioacchino Rossini (1792–1868) was born in the town of Pesaro on the shores of the Adriatic, where a festival of his work is now held each year in his honour. The Rossini Festival has seen many of the great composer's lesser-known works revived and some of them have since entered the standard operatic repertoire. The festival was established in 1980 to support to the publication of Rossini's complete works and is now an important fixture in the operatic calendar.

Productions are staged in the traditional Teatro Rossini and also in the Adriatic Arena BPA Palas.  We highly recommend a visit to Rossini's house where a large collection of memorabilia is displayed as well as a video library and projection facility.  Take a walking tour of Pesaro and visit the Conservatorio, founded by Rossini, where a collection of memorabilia is kept including the composer's piano and original manuscripts.  Also have a look at Pesaro's Palazzo Ducale, built for the Sforza family in the 15th century.