Opera viva. Un viaggio tra mito e realtà

THE MAGGIO MUSICALE FIORENTINO ANNOUNCES THE 2026 SEASON

& THE 88TH EDITION OF THE FESTIVAL

Six types of subscriptions are offered to the audience; renewals can be made starting from July 7th.

New subscriptions are on sale starting from July 15th. Tickets for individual shows are on sale starting from September 8th.

Florence, June 30th, 2026 – The Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino announces the upcoming 2026 season and the 88th edition of the Maggio Musicale Festival: twelve opera titles – spanning from Baroque to Contemporary, with a new commission – 2 symphonic cycles conducted by Musical Director Daniele Gatti, numerous symphonic and symphonic-choral concerts with the numerous appearances of Zubin Mehta, who will celebrate his 90th birthday in 2026, two ballets and shows for families and schools.

Tosca, Pagliacci in diptych with Cavalleria Rusticana, Il castello di Barbablù in diptych with La voix humaine, The Death of Klinghoffer - opening title of the Festival - Un ballo in maschera, Giulio Cesare, Wozzeck, Romanzo criminale, Simon Boccanegra, Les contes d’Hoffmann are the opera titles that builds up the Opera season and the Festival.

"Twelve titles, twelve worlds. The new opera season of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino - says the superintendent Carlo Fuortes - is a journey through time, society and the human soul. A strong intertwining of stories that speak of all of us: impossible loves, loneliness, violence, revolts, broken dreams and desires that resist. Opera, here, is not just a heritage to be preserved: it is living matter, burning and emotional.

Un ballo in maschera, Simon Boccanegra, Tosca, Les contes d’Hoffmann : beloved titles, full of tradition and beauty but also of anxieties that speak of the present. The double veristic duo Pagliacci/Cavalleria Rusticana brings back to the stage a raw, passionate theater, where every gesture is life or death. And then Handel's Giulio Cesare: the baroque as a mirror of power, seduction and ambiguity. But it is in the fracture, and perhaps in the risk - continues Fuortes - that the 2026 program finds its strongest voice. With John Adams' The Death of Klinghoffer, a title with a strong political and civil impact, the opera opens up to the world and its still open wounds. Berg's Wozzeck delves into the madness, the discomfort, the fragmented language of our time. Poulenc's The Human Voice and Bartok's Il castello di Barbablù tell, each in its own way, the silent pain and the distance between people. The present enters the scene with force thanks to Romanzo criminale, a new commission from Maggio and Musica per Roma, based on the novel of the same name by Giancarlo De Cataldo, who edited the libretto and with music by Nicola Piovani. An Italian story, raw and fascinating, which becomes musical theater for the first time: a bridge between the language of cinema, noir and the evocative power of live music.”

The conductors engaged on the podium in this “journey between myth and reality” are Michele Gamba, Riccardo Frizza, Martin Rajna, Lawrence Renes, Emmanuel Tjeknavorian, Gianluca Capuano, Thomas Guggeis, Nicola Piovani, James Conlon and Kent Nagano. Some of these names are new affirmations of orchestral conducting, young talents who already mark the future of music, alongside acclaimed and more acclaimed conductors on the international podium, capable of renewing the great operatic tradition with authority and sensitivity. A group of directors among the most interesting and visionary on the international scene contribute to making this season a great scenic fresco: Robert Carsen, Claus Guth, Deborah Warner, Valentina Carrasco, Àlex Ollé (La Fura dels Baus), Davide Livermore, Massimo Popolizio and Laurent Pelly.
The new production of The Death of Klinghoffer will be directed by Luca Guadagnino. “Their readings will bring to the stage different aesthetic worlds but certainly of great interest and emotion, between reinvented classicism, visual radicality, psychological precision and cinematic impact” comments the superintendent.

The symphonic and choral symphonic side features the cycle dedicated to the nine symphonies of Ludwig van Beethoven and the cycle dedicated to Felix Mendelssohn, which are entrusted to Daniele Gatti, Musical Director of the Maggio, a role he will officially assume starting from the Festival. “Gatti will offer the public - continues Fuortes - two symphonic itineraries of great breadth: the complete Beethoven Symphonies, the true backbone of Western music, and a cycle dedicated to Felix Mendelssohn, with all the symphonies and the oratorio Elias, restoring the spiritual and intellectual fullness of an author still little explored in Italian opera houses; and here I am particularly pleased to remember, in addition to our dazzling Orchestra, one of the protagonists of these cycles, present in three concerts, in almost all the operas, and in many of the concerts of the season: the wonderful Choir of the Maggio, conducted by Lorenzo Fratini”.

During the very rich concert season, with dozens of events, the greatest conductors on the international scene are scheduled, starting with Zubin Mehta, honorary director for life of the Maggio, who will propose five musical programs including a particularly symbolic concert that the maestro will conduct on April 29th, the day of his 90th birthday which he has decided to celebrate at the Maggio and in Florence. On the podium of our theater will be Myung-Whun Chung, Philippe Jordan (with Beatrice Rana at the piano), Gianandrea Noseda, Teodor Currentzis leading the musicAeterna Orchestra, Michele Mariotti (with Andrea Lucchesini at the piano), Daniele Rustioni, Diego Ceretta (with Benedetto Lupo at the piano and the Orchestra della Toscana), Thomas Guggeis, Tomàs Netopil, Dmitry Sinkovski, Aziz Shokhakimov (with Alexandra Dovgan at the piano), Christophe Rousset. In addition, the singing recitals of Jessica Pratt (Christopher Franklin on the podium), Asmik Grigorian (Lukas Geniušas at the piano), Francesco Meli and Luca Salsi (Nelson Calzi at the piano); two concerts with the voice of Drusilla Foer (Salvatore Percacciolo on the podium for the first and Timothy Brock in the second), and the Christmas concert on December 6yh with the Children's Choir of the Accademia del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino directed by Sara Matteucci.

Two ballet performances: Zakharova & Repin in Pas de deux for toes and fingers and the always eagerly awaited return of Roberto Bolle; the events of “C’è musica e Musica” now in its third edition dedicated to families and schools with 6 events (4 on Sunday and 2 on Saturday) the show of Venti lucenti signed by Manu Lalli, La danza delle maschera, which will be inspired by the “Ballo in maschera” opera scheduled during the 2026 Season.

The superintendent closes the presentation by summarizing: “Twelve operas, as mentioned, two symphonic cycles plus numerous other concerts; important names on the podium, for the directions, in the cast, a program that is an invitation to experience opera and music as a total experience: spectacle, reflection, emotion, ritual. An artistic journey that unites past and future, where ancient and contemporary voices confront and challenge each other because the Maggio wants to be the home of living opera: not a museum, but a place of research, narration and vision”.

2026 Season

Operas

The opera season begins in Puccini style after the last two performances - on January 2nd and 4th - of La bohème which definitively close the 2025 season, on Sunday January 11th (and five repeats) with the revival of Tosca, in the highly successful edition directed by Massimo Popolizio which was staged in 2024 during the last Maggio's Festival. On the podium Michele Gamba and on the stage a cast that marks the debut at the Maggio of Chiara Isotton called to interpret Tosca (and who will also return for Un ballo in maschera), with her we find Vincenzo Costanzo as Cavaradossi and Alexey Markov who plays the role of Baron Scarpia. The Maggio Chorus is directed by Lorenzo Fratini, the Children's Chorus of the Accademia del Maggio is directed by Sara Matteucci.

The second operatic event is marked by the diptych Pagliacci, by Ruggero Leoncavallo, and Cavalleria rusticana by Pietro Mascagni, on stage from Sunday 22nd February with three subsequent performances. The production is by the Dutch National Opera of Amsterdam and directed by Robert Carsen. On the podium we'll be Riccardo Frizza who tackles a repertoire, “Verismo”, different from the “Belcanto” he usually frequents. He will bring his experience and sensitivity to enhance the lyricism and also the refinement of the scores of Leoncavallo and Mascagni. Corinne Winters makes her debut in Florence with Pagliacci as Nedda; the character of Canio is entrusted to Brian Jadge, one of the most famous dramatic tenors. In “Cavalleria” Martina Belli makes her debut as Santuzza and the return of a great name such as Vesselina Kasarova as Mamma Lucia is highlighted. The Coro del Maggio is conducted by Lorenzo Fratini, the Coro di Voci bianche dell’Accademia del Maggio is conducted by Sara Matteucci. In this production Carsen plays with the concept of “theater within the theater”, making the audience an integral part of the staging and interacting with the spectators as probably never before in opera. This idea has been present throughout the director’s career, often in works such as Les contes d’Hoffmann for the Paris Opera or in the Tosca staged for the Teatre del Liceu.

The next diptych is a new production created in co-production with the Tiroler Festpiele Erl directed by Claus Guth, marking his debut at the Maggio. On the podium the young Hungarian conductor Martin Rajna for Il castello di Barbablù by Bela Bartok and La voix humaine by Francis Poulenc with the expected presence of Anna Caterina Antonacci as Elle. Three performances on the program with the first scheduled for Saturday, March 14th.

The Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Festival, now in its 88th edition, opens on Sunday, April 19th with a title that renews the Festival’s great and noble tradition of inaugurations with new and very rare contemporary works: The Death of Klinghoffer by John Adams.

This new production is directed by Luca Guadagnino, one of the most successful film directors on an international level, for the first time at the Maggio. On the podium is Lawrence Renes, a great promoter of Adams’s music, who has frequently conducted and recorded. The Maggio Chorus is conducted by Lorenzo Fratini.

The Death of Klinghoffer is an opera in a prologue and two acts with a libretto by the poet Alice Goodman, first performed in Brussels at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in 1991. In Italy it was performed only in 2002 in Ferrara and Modena. The opera is inspired by the sensational news story of October 1985: the hijacking of the Italian cruise ship ‘Achille Lauro’ by terrorists from the Palestine Liberation Front. The story, which attracted worldwide attention, ended with the murder of one of the passengers, Leonard Klinghoffer, a Jewish American citizen, confined to a wheelchair, and whose body was then thrown into the sea by the terrorists. The cast features a company of top-notch singers with strong acting skills, some of whom, among others, were heard and appreciated in Henze's recent Der Junge Lord: Marina Comparato, Levent Bakirci, Andreas Mattersberger; then Jeremy Carpenter as Captain, Laurent Nauri as Leon Klinghoffer and the return of Katarina Dalayman as his wife Marylin.

The second opera scheduled during the Festival, starting on Tuesday, May 12th with four subsequent performances, is Un ballo in maschera, by Giuseppe Verdi, a new production by the Maggio and directed by Valentina Carrasco. On the podium is the absolute debut of Emmanuel Tjeknavorian, conducting an opera for the first time. Winner of the 2025 Abbiati Award for best conductor, he is currently the musical director of the Milan Symphony Orchestra. The singing company features Antonio Poli as Riccardo and has Chiara Isotton as Amelia; Renato is the baritone Ariun Gambaatar, who is making his debut at the Maggio, and Ulrica will be Ksenia Dudnikova. The Maggio Choir is conducted by Lorenzo Fratini.

The third and final work of the Festival is dedicated to the Baroque with Handel's Julius Caesar, a serious opera in three acts, which will be performed on Sunday, June 14th, followed by other performances. The production is by the Monte Carlo Opera. Gianluca Capuano on the podium, the direction is by Davide Livermore who sets the plot in the roaring 1920s. The show opens with the passengers boarding the ship "Tolomeo", for a cruise on the Nile. The LED wall that acts as a backdrop to the opera shows landscapes with the monuments of ancient Egypt and, thanks to the scene changes, we then move to the cabins and various rooms of the ship. A show characterised by great liveliness, continuous movement and a large number of extras. Finally, the last 'twist' of the performance, with the resolution of the mystery of Tolomeo's assassination left to a short film. Three countertenors are on the bill; Raffaele Pe as Julius Caesar, Nicolò Balducci as Sextus Pompey and Filippo Mineccia as Ptolemy. The mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron (Cornelia) makes her debut at the Maggio and Cleopatra is played by Mariangela Sicilia.

In September the opera program resumes with Alban Berg's Wozzeck conducted by Thomas Guggeis who, after the symphonic concert conducted in June at the Maggio, conducts his first opera here. It is the production of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London directed by Deborah Warner. The premiere is scheduled for Sunday, September 27th and will be followed by two repeat performances. The singing company is made up of artists who were already on the bill in London for the Covent Garden production: Anja Kampe (Marie), Wolfgang Koch (Wozzeck), Peter Hoare (Haptman), Clive Bayley (Doktor). The Maggio Chorus is conducted by Lorenzo Fratini. Exploring numerous themes such as militarism, social exploitation and even sadism, Deborah Warner examines the lives of soldiers and ordinary people in a rural German town. The staging, despite proposing numerous scene changes, has its own precise sense of narrative. At the end of each scene a screen or curtain is lowered behind which the change takes place but, since this does not cover the entire stage, we still see the positioning of the props. Thanks to this play of silhouettes and transparencies we can see or glimpse, for example, the objects moving on a revolving platform.

This twentieth-century opera – Berg completed Wozzeck in 1922 – is followed on the bill starting on October 23rd with three successive performances by an important commission from the Teatro del Maggio and Musica per Roma: Romanzo criminale, based on the best seller by Giancarlo de Cataldo. De Cataldo’s novel has given rise to a film and two television series, and is now coming to the opera stage. The score is composed by Nicola Piovani, who will also direct the opera, the libretto is by Giancarlo De Cataldo, the direction is by Massimo Popolizio (who was one of the actors in the film and played the “Terrible”), the sets are by Margherita Palli, the costumes by Silvia Aymonino, and the lighting by Pasquale Mari. The singing company was composed obviously taking into account not only the most suitable vocals and for which Piovani is composing but also trying to center the physique du rôle of each character to ensure the theatrical performance as close as possible to the spirit of the novel, the film and the television series. So the leader of the Magliana battery, the Libanese, is William Hernandez, the leader of the Testaccio battery, the Freddo, is Gonzalo Godoy Sepùlveda, Dandi is played by Anthony Ciaramitaro, his partner Patrizia is Vanessa Goikoetxea, Commissioner Scialoja is Matteo Desole, the rival boss of the Magliana gang, the Terrible, is Toni Nezic, The Bufalo, who is part of the Libanese and Dandi group is Alberto Petricca, the mother of the Libanese is Valentina Pernozzoli. The Maggio Choir is conducted by Lorenzo Fratini.

On Sunday, November 15th, the second Giuseppe Verdi title of the season after “Un ballo in maschera” will be performed with three subsequent performances: Simon Boccanegra. It is a new production by the Maggio Fiorentino; James Conlon will be on the podium and the direction is by Alex Ollé (of la Fura dels Baus). The Maggio Choir is conducted by Lorenzo Fratini. In the singing company, after the successes of Madama Butterfly and La traviata, we find Carolina López Moreno as Amelia; Simon Boccanegra is George Petean; as Jacopo Fiesco, the bass Jongmin Park will make his debut; Gabriele Adorno is Luciano Ganci, Paolo Albani is Ludovico Filippo Ravizza; Pietro is Francesco Leone.

The last title of the opera season, Les contes d’Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach, will be performed starting on Sunday 20 December with three subsequent performances on 27 and 30 December and the last one arriving in the new year on 2 January 2027. We will listen to the critical edition by Michael Kaye and Jean Christophe Keck which recovers much music unknown until recently, in the original spirit of opéra-comique desired by Offenbach. On the podium Kent Nagano, the direction is by Laurent Pelly, who signs a marvelous and “dreamy” production staged at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. The last edition of the opera was performed at the Maggio in 1981 with the direction of Ronconi, so this title “returns” to Florence after a good 45 years. Jessica Pratt plays, also in compliance with Offenbach's indications, the four characters of Stella, Olympia, Antonia and Giulietta and is nowadays one of the very few great interpreters in the world able to support these four parts in the same show. Likewise, the four diabolical figures of Lindorf, Coppelius, Dr. Miracle and Dapertutto are supported by Alex Esposito and the comic roles of Andrès, Cochenille, Frantz and Pitichinaccio are played by Didier Pieri. In the company we got Marvic Monréal as La Muse and Nicklausse, Hoffman is the tenor Dmitry Korchak, one of the most sought-after and refined voices on the international scene who debuts in Florence; Crespel and Luther are played by Martin Summer. The Maggio Choir is conducted by Lorenzo Fratini.
 

The two symphonic cycles and the concerts

Daniele Gatti, musical director of the Maggio, starting in April 2026, during the 88th Festival, will propose the first of two important symphonic cycles that he will offer to the public: the complete nine symphonies by Ludwig van Beethoven in four events starting from June 18th (Symphony Nos. 1, 4, 7), June 23rd (Symphony Nos. 5 and 6), June 28th (Symphony Nos. 2 and 3) and July 1st (Symphony No. 8 and Symphony No. 9 with the solo voices of Mariangela Sicilia, Eleonora Filipponi, Bernard Richter and Jongmin Park and the Choir conducted by Lorenzo Fratini). The second cycle is dedicated to Felix Mendelssohn; the first concert is scheduled for November 21st with the Symphony No. 2 Lobgesang (soloists: Rosalia Cid, Elizaveta Shuvalova, Yijie Shi; the Maggio Choir is conducted by Lorenzo Fratini), December 9th with the Symphonies 1 and 4 Italian, December 13th with the Symphonies 3 Scottish and 5 Reformation. December 19th is the last appointment of the cycle with the oratorio Elias with the solo voices of Sara Blanch, Michèle Losier, Danil Behle, Jordan Shanahan and the Maggio Choir conducted by Lorenzo Fratini. With this first cycle, the Maggio and Maestro Gatti anticipate the Beethoven anniversary of 2027 when the two hundred years since the composer's death will be celebrated. Beethoven will be performed again with this celebratory spirit in two of the five concerts conducted by Zubin Mehta: on April 3rd he will conduct the Missa Solemnis with Hanna-Elisabeth Muller, Marvic Monreal, Maximilian Schmitt and Jongmin Park as soloists with the Coro del Maggio conducted by Lorenzo Fratini and on April 29th, the 90th birthday of Maestro Mehta, with Symphony No. 9 (soloists Jessica Pratt, Szilvia Voros, Ian Koziara, Simon Lim and the Coro del Maggio conducted by Lorenzo Fratini) and also in the concert conducted by Diego Ceretta on June 9th when the cantata Meeresstille und gluckliche Fahrt and the Fantasy in C minor op. 11 by the genius from Bonn will be performed. 80. Ceretta will then propose during the concert also Mendelssohn's overture Die Hebriden and Schubert's symphony n.4 Tragic. With him the Orchestra della Toscana with which the collaboration is strengthened and the Coro del Maggio conducted by Lorenzo Fratini and the soloists of the Accademia del Maggio. Also Philippe Jordan on May 28th will remember Beethoven with the overture Leonore op.72b and above all with the Concerto n.3 in C minor for piano and orchestra with the presence of the great pianist Beatrice Rana in one of her rare Italian appearances. Also in the program of October 15th conducted by Aziz Shokhakimov, Beethoven's Egmont overture and the Concerto n.1 in C major for piano and orchestra op.15 will be performed, with the extraordinary soloist - just eighteen years old - Alexandra Dovgan. The program of this concert culminates with Gustav Holst's The Planets with the Maggio Women's Choir conducted by Lorenzo Fratini.

Maestro Mehta will then conduct three Mozart symphonies (No. 39, No. 40 and No. 41) on February 6th; Gustav Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth) on April 23rd with the solo voices of Tanja Ariane Baumgartner and Ian Koziara; and Mahler's Symphony No. 2 Resurrection on September 26th with the solo voices of Rosalia Cid and Noa Beinart and the Maggio Choir conducted by Lorenzo Fratini.

Teodor Currentzis will conduct the ‘musicAeterna Orchestra’ on February 13th in Der Ring ohne Worte, the symphonic synthesis of Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen tetralogy. Daniele Rustioni will bring Wagner back to the stage on February 21st with the Tannhauser overture and Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 Das Schicksalslied (The Song of Destiny) with the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino conducted by Lorenzo Fratini; On March 20, Jessica Pratt, conducted by Christopher Franklin, will perform an all-Mozartian program that follows the CD she recorded with the Maggio and that will be published by her record company “Tancredi records” with arias and overtures from Il ratto dal Serraglio, Il flauto magico, Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Cosi fan tutte. On March 28th, Tomas Netopil will return to the Maggio to perform the complete cycle of the six symphonic poems of Mà Vlast (My Homeland), which includes the famous La Vltava. On May 3rd, Michele Mariotti, with pianist Andrea Lucchesini at his side, will perform Cajkovskij's Piano Concerto No. 1 and Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 From the New World.

On May 16th, Myung-Whun Chung will take the podium of the Maggio Orchestra for Mahler's Symphony No. 5. On May 23rd, the eclectic Dmitry Sinkovski, conductor and violinist, will conduct a program with music by Borodin (Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor), Vivaldi's Concerto in D major For the Solemnity of San Lorenzo, and Rimsky-Korsakov's symphonic suite Shéherazade. The Maggio Choir is conducted by Lorenzo Fratini.

On June 6th, soprano Asmik Grigorian, one of the great voices of our time, will arrive, accompanied on the piano by Lukas Geniušas for a concert with arias by Cajkovskij and Rachmaninov. Ten days later, on June 16th, two beloved presences for another singing concert, the tenor Francesco Meli and the baritone Luca Salsi will be at the Maggio for a Verdi concert with arias and duets from Don Carlo, La forza del destino, I vespri siciliani, Otello. With them at the piano Nelson Calzi who will propose Liszt's paraphrase from Rigoletto S434.

Two concerts will feature Drusilla Foer: the first dedicated to musical entertainment is scheduled for September 10th, in which Foer will be the narrator in Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf; on the podium Salvatore Percacciolo who will conduct, to stay on the theme, the Symphony from Rossini's L'italiana in Algeri and Haydn's Symphony No. 94 La sorpresa. The second concert dedicated to Hollywood soundtracks is scheduled for September 13th; this time Timothy Brock will take the podium to conduct excerpts from King Kong, On the Waterfront, Sunset Boulevard and Kurt Weill's songs performed by Drusilla Foer.

On October 2nd, during the programming of Wozzeck conducted by him, Thomas Guggeis will take the podium for a concert featuring Haydn's Symphony No. 103 Mit dem Paukenwirbel (with the roll of the drums) and Bruckner's homage to Wagner with Symphony No. 7 in E major. On November 28th, Christophe Rousset, with the solo voices of Marie-Eve Munger, Beth Taylor, Sebastian Kohlhepp, Luca Tittoto and the double bass played by Riccardo Donati, offers a program of Mozart rarities from concert arias to overtures. The 2026 symphonic program ends on December 23rd in a Christmassy spirit with the concert conducted by Gianandrea Noseda, which features the complete concert performance of  Pëtr Il'ič Caikovskij’s The Nutcracker with the Maggio Orchestra and the Children’s Choir of the Accademia del Maggio conducted by  Sara Matteucci.
 

Ballet

In the 2026 Season, there will be ballet with two events, the first scheduled for January 20th, with a repeat performance on the 21st Pas de deux for toes and fingers with the “duo” Zakharova & Repin and the second in December on December 10th with two repeat performances on the 11th and 12th with the always highly appreciated show Roberto Bolle and Friends.

Svetlana Zakharova, star of the Bolshoi and Teatro alla Scala, beloved by the public, celebrated by critics as a true champion and requested by the major theaters in the world, will perform together with her husband Vadim Repin, acclaimed violinist and conductor, who will conduct the Maggio Orchestra in a very special pas de deux that enhances their absolute talents: for her feet, who dances on stage, and for his hands, who plays the violin. Alongside Zakharova, other internationally renowned dancers will dance: Artemy Belyakov, Mikhail Lobukhin and Igor Tsvirko. Music by Paganini, Glazunov, Saint-Saëns, Händel and Massenet will be performed, among others. Neither the star Roberto Bolle, whose worldwide fame is undisputed and whose name in itself means “dance”, nor his gala show “Roberto Bolle and Friends” with its highly appreciated format, always highly anticipated in every artistic program that sees him as the protagonist in Italy and around the world, needs any introduction. Bolle gathers around him dancers of the highest profile from the best companies for a show that compares, in the name of dance, techniques, schools and styles. Each show is conceived for the stage that hosts it, in a parade of pas de deux, solos taken from the repertoire of nineteenth-century classics and the most famous twentieth-century titles.
 

The third cycle of C’è Musica e Musica 3.0

After the great success of the first two editions of “C’è Musica e Musica”, the fresh, lively and above all fun initiative to bring the public, not only tomorrow’s, closer to the theatre and the great charm of its performances, the curtain rises, starting from February 8th, on the new third cycle dedicated to families and young people and schools, “C’è Musica e Musica 3.0”. The cycle continues until November 14th with six events on the programme: four shows on Sunday morning at 11 am and two on Saturday at 4 pm. The title of the cycle is a reference and a tribute to the composer Luciano Berio, just over twenty years after his death, and to his famous television programme dedicated precisely to the dissemination and teaching of music.

The programme starts on Sunday, February 8th at 11 am with a classic: Carmina Burana by Carl Orff conducted by Lorenzo Fratini, in the version for percussion and piano. On stage, the singers and pianists of the Accademia del Maggio, the percussionists of the Orchestra del Maggio, the Coro del Maggio and the Coro di Voci bianche dell’Accademia del Maggio, directed by Sara Matteucci.

The second appointment is scheduled for Sunday, March 1st with the Symphony of the Animals, by Dan Brown, the author of the novel “The Da Vinci Code” who in addition to being a writer is also a musician and composer. This very funny symphony is similar in approach in some ways to the Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns, where each musical number represents an animal; the text that accompanies this symphony will be read and recited by the actress Ginevra Fenyes; the Maggio orchestra is directed by Carlo Benedetto Cimento.

On March 15th, again on Sunday at 11 am, La meravigliosa storia di Pascarella al castello di Morritz  will be performed again with a different title than in 2025 (when it was “Water&Fire”), with music by Handel, focusing the title on the character of Pascarella who is played today as last year by Gaia Nanni. On the podium of the Maggio Orchestra, Giulio Arnolfi.

In October, on Sunday 11th at 11 am and on Saturday 24th at 4 pm, the two appointments with Lorenzo Baglioni who will tell the story of Ludwig van Beethoven (again on the occasion of the bicentenary of 2027) on October 11th on the podium on this occasion Rotem Nir, and then Giuseppe Verdi, the Swan from Busseto, on October 24th at 4 pm, on the podium Jacopo Brusa.

The last event is scheduled for Saturday, November 14th at 4 pm, when the traditional concert dedicated to the instrumentalists of our orchestra this year is dedicated to the Percussionists of Maggio with the show The Five Elements.
 

The Venti Lucenti show

This year, in March, Manu Lalli is staging the new production of the show La danza delle maschere  with performances scheduled for 25th, 26th, 27th and 31st at 10:30 am dedicated to schools and on 28th and 29th March for families. Its development draws inspiration from and therefore anticipates Un Ballo in Maschera, by Verdi, which is scheduled during the Festival in May. In the pit, the instrumentalists of the Orchestral Ensemble of the Accademia del Maggio will play and on stage, with the actors of Venti Lucenti, some of the talents of the Accademia del Maggio will sing. On stage with them, the students of the project “All’opera,.. Le scuole al Maggio!” are the protagonists. Manu Lalli is in charge of the direction and the scenic writing.

The commission is by the Teatro del Maggio in co-production with Venti Lucenti; the show is in collaboration with the Accademia del Maggio, and is a project of the Fondazione CR Firenze curated by Venti Lucenti and in collaboration with the Maggio and the Department of Education, Professional Training, Culture of Memory and Legality and Equal Opportunities of the Municipality of Florence.
 

The ticket office

For the 2026 Season, the Teatro del Maggio offers the public a series of six different subscriptions.

Starting with the overall subscription that includes all the programming of the shows scheduled in the subscription, called "Tutto Maggio" and which includes operas, concerts and ballets of the program, including the Festival, which is joined by five other more limited subscriptions that group together in different packages the operas, ballets, concerts and symphony cycles of both the Season and the Festival.

Renewals can be made from July 7th 2025 until September 30th 2025.

New subscriptions can be purchased from July 15th 2025.

From September 8th 2025, single tickets for the entire 2026 Season will be put on sale.

The Maggio ticket office is open from Monday to Friday from 10 am to 1 pm and from 3 pm to 6 pm; Saturdays from 10 am to 1 pm.

It is open two hours before each show and is closed on Sundays.

The Courtesy Service can be reached at 0552779309
and at the email address [email protected]

It is open from Tuesday to Friday from 2 pm to 6 pm and on Wednesdays from 10 am to 1 pm;
It is closed on Mondays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

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The Fondazione Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino thanks the following Members for their support:

Founding Members: the Ministry of Culture, the Municipality of Florence and the Tuscany Region.

The Fondazione Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino also thanks the private Members: Fondazione CR Firenze, Intesa Sanpaolo.

In addition: Baker Hughes, Ferragamo, Publiacqua, Toscana Aeroporti, Unicoop Firenze, Gucci, Toscana Energia, Fondazione Mascarade Opera, University of Florence, Pitti Immagine; Sponsors: Cassetti Rolex, Caffè Borbone, Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella; Technical Sponsors: Brandini, Tecnoconference, Torrigiani.

The Fondazione Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino also thanks all the members of the Register of Members: the Patron Companies, the Corporate plus, the Patron Associates, Supporters, the Benemeriti, the Effective Associates, the Associates and the Association of Friends of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.