The Arena of Verona is a Roman amphitheater located in the historic center of Verona. It is the oldest amphitheater with the best preservation thanks to the restorations of the 600’s. Summer hosts the famous opera festival, great shows and famous concerts.

The Lirico Areniano Festival is also known as the Arena of Verona Opera Festival, is a show of opera music held during the summer months in Verona Arena. It was inaugurated for the first time in 1913 with Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida opera to celebrate the centenary of the artist’s birth.

The first was a very important event since it marked the birth of a new scenic style, abandoning the painted scenes typical of traditional theaters, adopting instead new three-dimensional elements. The invention was used for almost all the works represented in the amphitheater.

This novelty was well received by the public, and indeed it favored success, so there were quarrels between people to attend the first Aida. The amphitheater was complete: there were Americans, Argentinians, Russians and many Germans among the public. The first also featured important characters such as Giacomo Puccini, Arrigo Boito, Pietro Mascagni and Franz Kafka.

This allows us to understand the enormous success that the Areniana opera had since its appearance and still possesses, given the large number of viewers who each go to the Arena to attend the various works. Verona has become one of the international capitals of the Opera, an artistic form that has found its highest expression in Italy.

In 2012, the museum of the AMO opera was set up at Palazzo Forti, which presents the story of the lyric with the aim of enhancing and promoting the lyrical culture. The museum features sheet music, autographs, missions, notes, sketches of the greatest composers such as Verdi, Bellini, Rossini, Puccini, Donizetti, as well as original scene dresses, pieces of scenography, photographs, sketches of great scenographers and costumes.

Verona Opera Web site: www.arena.it