“What if opera returned to the streets - not metaphorically, but literally?”

This question-provocation came from the creators, Fabio Cherstich and Gianluigi Toccafondo, who posed it years ago to Carlo Fuortes in 2016, then superintendent of the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma. He embraced the idea and launched a project destined to receive widespread acclaim: a truck drives into a square, opens its container, and transforms into an open-air stage.

Orchestra, singers, lights, costumes - everything happens there, outdoors, in the street, in a piazza, just a few steps away from the audience.

Now this project, enthusiastically revived by the Fondazione CR Firenze, arrives in Tuscany with seven free performances open to everyone, bringing Giacomo Puccini’s opera Gianni Schicchi to the square stage: in Florence on two occasions, and then in Scandicci, Pontassieve, Empoli, Montevarchi, and Grosseto, from June 27 to July 7, 2026, at 9:00 PM.

Fabio Cherstich directs the production, Gianluigi Toccafondo creates the animated drawings and visual imagery, and Pietro Mazzetti conducts.

The ensemble of the Orchestra of the Accademia del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino is composed of young instrumentalists from the Youth Orchestra Lab (YOL), an artistic residency program for young musicians created by the Academy in collaboration with the Teatro del Maggio and in partnership with the Teatro Goldoni of Livorno, funded by the Regione Toscana with support from the European Social Fund. The artistic residency is part of Giovanisì, the Regione Toscana project dedicated to youth independence.

New production

Free admission - open to everyone

Bring your own chair from home