RAVENNA FESTIVAL 2020: THE NEW PROGRAMME WITH OVER 40 EVENTS
From 21 June to 30 July in the Rocca Brancaleone, in Cervia and in Lugo with concerts, theatre, and dance
The Italy of music not only restarts but continues with Ravenna Festival: over 40 events between 21 June and 30 July, a new programme featuring concerts, theatre, and dance; the main venue is the Rocca Brancaleone, but the Festival takes place also in Cervia and Lugo, both close to Ravenna. As the regulations against the Covid-19 outbreak were closing theatres and concert halls everywhere in Italy, it seemed impossibile to imagine this 31st edition; for this very reason it now shines brighter (and in compliance with the safety measures for artists, staff, and audience). While Riccardo Muti leads the Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra and soprano Rosa Feola in the opening concert on June 21, and will be again on the podium for two additional concerts, guest artists include Accademia Bizantina, Beatrice Rana, Mario Brunello, Valery Gergiev, Iván Fischer, Anna Prohaska, Sergio Castellitto, Isabella Ferrari, Neri Marcorè, Vinicio Capossela, Giovanni Sollima, Stefano Bollani. Besides, the Festival is planning for the digital broadcasting of the events.
> Discover all the events in details
> Leaf through the complete programme (PDF)
The Festival re-imagined the 2020 edition, turning the Rocca Brancaleone into the heart of the programme: this 15-th century fortress, on 1 July 1990, hosted the first edition’s opening concert led by Riccardo Muti; this year the Festival restarts from the Rocca, with a concert featuring also Mozart’s luminous Symphony no. 41 “Jupiter”. The Cherubini Orchestra is led by Muti also in the concert of Friendship, to be performed also in Paestum, and for the concert with Wiener cellist Tamás Varga; and also by Valery Gergiev for a tribute to Beethoven including the Pastoral and the Piano Concerto no. 3 with Beatrice Rana. The symphonic section is completed by Iván Fischer, the Budapest Festival Orchestrab, and soprano Anna Prohaska, performing Wagner, Britten, and Haydn.
Two brand new productions, designed during the lockdown, première at the Festival. On the one hand Duets and Solos joins dance and music, bringing together great soloists, Mario Brunello and Beatrice Rana, and étoiles; ranging from pas de deux with real life couples (Silvia Azzoni and Alexandre Ryabko from the Hamburg Ballet, Iana Salenko and Marian Walter from the Staatsballett Berlin) and solos with Hugo Marchand (Opéra de Paris), Sergio Bernal (former Spanish National Ballet), Matteo Miccini (Stuttgart Ballet). Sergio Castellitto and Isabella Ferrari bring to the stage Ci sono giorni che non accadono mai, a play by Valerio Cappelli on passion and its demons in the time of Covid-19, on music by Ennio Morricone never previously performed.
While Accademia Bizantina presents Händel’s Il Trionfo del tempo e del disinganno, countertenor Carlo Vistoli joins the ensemble Sezione Aurea in a programme on loves in 17th-century Venice. The route throughout the pre-Bach repertoire includes The Plague in Hamburg by the ensemble Il suonar parlante, led by Vittorio Ghielmi, and Michele Pasotti’s La fonte musica stars in the only concert filmed, without an audience, in the Basilica of San Vitale. Accademia d’Arcadia and La Pifarescha dedicate their concerts, respectively, to paintress Artemisia Gentileschi and to the Battle of Lepanto.
Two concerts celebrate the cello, featuring Giovanni Sollima, l’Orchestra Notturna Clandestina, and Enrico Melozzi; ensemble Ludus Gravis explores the full potential of the double bass, while the piano is centre stage in the recitals of Nikolay Khozyainov and Filippo Gorini. Again Beethoven for Scala konzertmeister Francesco Manara and pianist Cesare Pezzi; the Quartetto Noûs puts the composer of Bonn and Šostakovič side by side. Double marriage between music and cinema with Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights and the Orchestra Corelli led by Timothy Brock, and Requiem for a Dying Planet showcasing Ernst Reijseger’s score for Werner Herzog’s documentary films. Neri Marcorè delves into the Italian singer-songwriters’ repertoire, while Danilo Rea dedicates his concert to Mina, Sarah Jane Morris to the Beatles, and Vinicio Capossela brings to stage Pandemonium.
The theatre section also features Romagna-based companies: Teatro delle Albe with Rumore di acque in the occasion of the play’s 10th anniversary, Fanny & Alexander with Andrea Argentieri as Primo Levi in I sommersi e i salvati, Menoventi with Buona permanenza al mondo based on Serena Vitale’s book on Majakovskij.
In Cervia, in the arena set up near the Stadio dei Pini, the talks of Per l’alto sale – Il Trebbo in musica 2.0 combine tributes to the “heroes” of the Romagna region – poet Tonino Guerra, gastronomer Pellegrino Artusi, and film director Federico Fellini – to the themes of our age and to music; among the guests Massimo Gramellini, Melania Mazzucco, Paolo Rumiz, Gad Lerner, Ivano Marescotti, Ilaria Capua, Stefano Boeri. The Festival also returns to the Pavaglione of Lugo with singer-songwriter and story-teller Brunori Sas, Stefano Bollani with his Piano Variations on Jesus Christ Superstar, the multimedia show DNA by Deproducers with Telmo Pievani, and the tribute to Luis Bacalov featuring Maria Grazia Cucinotta and New Trolls’ Vittorio De Scalzi.
TICKETS INFO
For any inquiry, you can contact the Ticket Office either by e-mail (tickets@ravennafestival.org) or by phone (+39 0544 249244) from Monday to Saturday, from 10 to 14, and on Sunday from 10 to 13.
Tickets can be purchased:
– from the official website www.ravennafestival.org
– by phone, contacting the Ticket Office of the Alighieri Theatre (ph. +39 0544 249244, mon-sat 10-14, sun 10-13)
– in person from the Ticket Office of the Alighieri Theatre (but access will be granted only on appointment, advanced booking by phone +39 333 2009711, mon-sat 9-14).
It is possible to purchase maximum 2 tickets per person per event, for up to three different event (up to a total number of 6 tickets), in order to guarantee the best availability of tickets for the greatest number of people, in consideration of the reduction in the number of seats due to the social distancing rules (300 seats in the Rocca Brancaleone, 300 in Cervia, and 500 in Lugo).
Those who have bought any ticket before the sales were suspended and before the announcement of the new programme must contact the Ticket Office for the refund through voucher, in compliace with the decree March 17, 2020, (art. 88). The voucher lasts 18 months and can be used to purchase tickets of Ravenna Festival 2020, Ravenna Festival 2021, Opera and Dance winter season 2020/21 of the Alighieri Theatre. The new and limited spaces in the venues, within the limits of social distancing, unfortunately make it impossible to transfer any previous booking to the events of the new programme.
