Italy’s Arena di Verona Opera Festival Announces Record-Breaking 2026 Season
By Afton Markay(photo: FotoEnnevi)
The Arena di Verona Opera Festival reports that its 2026 season was its most successful to date.
The Festival’s 103rd season was held this past summer and spanned 51 nights in the 10,000-seat, open-air Roman amphitheater. Performances attracted some 416,600 audience members, a 12,000 person increase from the previous summer. Also, the Festival reported that 11% of attendees were under 30 years old. Attendance by Italians rose by 24%, while foreign visitors, representing 131 different countries, made up 57% of the total.
The expansion of the festival’s “Arena per Tutti” accessibility project saw 1,485 people with disabilities take part in 19 multisensory experiences and 26 evening performances featuring special technological and digital aids. The Festival reached more than 63 million users online, including 34,000 social media followers, while TV broadcasts attracted 1.3 million primetime viewers.
Box office takings also made festival history, totalling close to $41.5 million (€37 million), almost $1.7 million (€1.5 million) more than in 2025. Nearly 20 performances were completely sold out, and with takings of $1.21 million (€1.079 million), the June 13 performance of “La traviata “surpassed the record set two years ago, becoming the festival’s highest-grossing single evening to date.
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