［CITY］
Macerata … Italy
［SCHEDULE］
2026：7.17 … 8.9
To the festival site ▷
Since 2021, this music festival has been strongly called “Macerata Music Festival” on its website. From the name of the city where the festival is held, it was often called by that name, but until now, the expression “Sferisterio Opera Festival” has come to the fore.
The name has been used because the opera is performed in an open-air theater called “Arena Sferisterio”. The Arena is a stadium for ancient tennis built in the 1820s and is built in neoclassical architecture. The stage is a huge space with a capacity of less than 4,000, with the left and right sides exceeding 100 meters.
The festival was founded in 1921. At this time, Verdi’s “Aida” was performed, and 70,000 people rushed to 17 performances. The following year, Ponchielli’s “La Gioconda” was performed, but the music festival was interrupted that year. The suspended festival was revived in 1967, 45 years later.
Since then, three to four operas have been performed from July to August.
In the past, there were memorial productions with Innovative direction, which attracted attention from opera lovers, such as “Madama Butterfly” directed by Ken Russell and “Carmen” directed by Franco Zefirelli.
In 1989, the refurbishment of the Lauro Rossi Theater, which had 550 seats is over. An opera performance using it began.
