The Donizetti Opera Festival has announced has released the final numbers for the 2025 edition.

The festival announced that there was an overall attendance at performances of more than 12,200 people, which was about 20 percent higher than in 2023. Added to all this are the attendance figures for the off-festival, with its rich program of more than 30 events, many of which offered free admission. The line-up of encounters, concerts, presentations, convivial events, guided tours, and open rehearsals saw around 1,800 people.

The event also noted that 87 percent of the organized tours came from abroad and individual ticket sales (based on a sample of 1,123 purchasers), international visitors accounted for 24 percent of the attendance figure, coming from 33 different countries: Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Great Britain, France, United States, Finland, Japan, Austria, Romania, Belgium, Sweden, Greece, Netherlands, Ireland, Poland, Czech Republic, Israel, Norway, Hungary, Australia, Slovenia, Malta, Denmark, Portugal, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Mexico, Canada, Croatia, Latvia, Russia, and Turkey.

The Donizetti Opera 2025 also attracted both the national and international media from numerous newspapers, online outlets, radio and TV broadcasters.

In a statement, Riccardo Frizza said,”This year’s Donizetti Opera marked a major milestone for me, having taken on the role of artistic director in addition to musical director at the start of the year. Although I did not entirely plan the programme, I wanted to maximise the value of each title and every artist involved, following the guidelines declared from the outset of my mandate. I am, therefore, very pleased with the outcome of the festival and the vocal and musical level presented, thanks to performers of great talent, the young conductors on the podium and the artistic ensembles, the Donizetti Opera Orchestra, Gli Originali, and the Chorus of the Accademia Teatro alla Scala, who ensured the level of professionalism was high. The response from the public and the national and international critics also confirms the artistic maturity of the event and the growing interest in a repertoire that still offers many unexpected discoveries. We’re already working on the upcoming editions, and I was particularly satisfied to have been able to announce the titles for Donizetti Opera 2026 at the opening of this festival, bringing us closer to other world players and facilitating the participation of international audiences, who are increasingly attentive and involved year after year. I therefore thank the artists, the workers, the collaborators, and the Donizetti Theatre Foundation as a whole for making the 2025 festival possible.”

President Giorgio Berta added, “This year’s Donizetti Opera 2025 marks the symbolic beginning of a new decade of growth for our festival. The results confirm the solidity of the path undertaken, revealing the constant commitment to promoting and spreading Donizetti’s legacy and generating new cultural value for the city. The festival plays an important role for the local economy and tourism industry, not to mention the centrality that the initiative is assuming on the international scene, also to the benefit of Bergamo’s image worldwide. I would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to artistic and music director Riccardo Frizza, to all the artists, technical workers, and administrative staff, and to the collaborators and suppliers of the Donizetti Theatre Foundation, who with professionalism, dedication, and passion have supported every stage of the event, enabling these positive results to be achieved. Furthermore, an indispensable thanks goes to our increasingly loyal and devoted audience, as the data shows, and, last but not least, a big thank you to our sponsors and public and private partners, whose contribution is essential to making a cultural initiative of this magnitude possible and to holding high the name of Bergamo and its illustrious fellow citizen throughout the world.”

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