The Maggio Musicale Fiorentino has announced its 2020-21 season featuring concerts, opera productions, and a star-studded summer festival.

For this article, we will only focus on the Italian theater’s operatic and vocal concerts.

Season 

Federico Maria Sardelli conducts a new production of Handel’s “Rinaldo” with Pierluigi Pizzi directing. The cast includes Raffaele Pe in the title role, Leonardo Cortellazzi, Carmela Remigio, Francesca Aspromonte, Andrea Patucelli, and Cristiano William Corrò.

Performance Dates: Sept. 7-13, 2020

Ailyn Pérez sings the title role in Puccini’s “La Rondine” with Roberto Aronica, Roberta Mameli, Francesco Castoro, and Francesco Verna. Marco Armiliato conducts.

Performance Dates: Sept. 22-29, 2020

Plácido Domingo and María José Siri lead a revival of Verdi’s “Nabucco” with Fabio Sartori and Alexander Vinogradov. Paolo Carignani conducts the production by Leo Muscato.

Performance Dates: Oct. 4-13, 2020

Michele Gamba conducts Rossini’s “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” with a cast that includes Vasilisa Berzhanskaya, Massimo Cavalletti, Fabio Capitanucci, Ruzil Gatin, and Evgeny Stavinsky.

Performance Dates: Oct. 23-29, 2020

Chiara Muti directs a new production of Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” with Vittoria Yeo in the title role, Sergei Skorokhodov, Annalisa Stroppa, and Alessandro Luongo. Francesco Ivan Ciampa conducts.

Performance Dates: Nov. 12-28, 2020

Fabio Sartori, Marina Rebeka, and Ludovic Tézier lead a new production of Verdi’s “Otello” with Zubin conducting and Valerio Binasco directing.

Performance Dates: Nov. 27-Dec. 19, 2020

Michele Gamba conducts a new production of Donizetti’s “Linda di Chamounix” by Cesare Lievi. The production stars Jessica Pratt, Francesco Demuro, Michele Pertusi, Teresa Iervolino, and Vittorio Prato.

Performance Dates: Dec. 23, 2020-Jan. 10, 2021

James Levine conducts concert performances of Berlioz’s “La Damnation de Faust” with Michael Spyres, Marianne Crebassa, and Ferruccio Furlanetto.

Performance Dates: Jan. 11-16, 2020

Leo Nucci sings the title role of Verdi’s “Rigoletto” with Davide Livermore directing a new production. Riccardo Frizza conducts the opera with a cast that also includes René Barbera, Enkeleda Kamani, Caterina Piva, and Maharram Huseynov.

Performance Dates: Feb. 21-March 7, 2021

Mozart’s “Così fan tutte” will be conducted by Zubin Mehta and directed in a new production by Sven-Erich Bechtolf. The cast includes Valentina Naforniţa, Gaëlle Arquez, Matthew Swensen, Mattia Olivieri, Benedetta Torre, and Thomas Hampson.

Performance Dates: March 28-April 11, 2021

 

 

Festival 

The festival opens with Cilea’s “Adriana Lecouvreur” with María José Siri, Ekaterina Gubanova, Fabio Sartori, and Nicola Alaimo. Jürgen Flimm directs the new production.

Performance Dates: April 24-May 6, 2021

Daniele Gatti conducts an evening with music by Stravinsky, Strauss, and Wagner.

Performance Date: April 26, 2021

Myung-Whun Chung conducts Mahler’s Symphony No.3 with Gerhild Romberger.

Performance Date: May 5, 2021

Fabio Vacchi’s “Jeanne Dark” will be conducted by Alessandro Cadario and directed by Valentino Villa. The production will star Elia Schilton, Alexia Voulgaridou, Roberta Mameli, Manuel Amati, Paolo Antognetti, Leonardo Cortellazzi, Giovan Battista Parodi, Gianluca Margheri, and Carlo Cigni.

Performance Dates: May 20-26, 2021

Carlus Padrissa directs a new production of Verdi’s “La Forza del Destino” with Saioa Hernández, Roberto Aronica, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Amartuvshin Enkhbat, Annalisa Stroppa, and Carlo Lepore. Zubin Mehta conducts.

Performance Dates: June 4-20, 2021

Anna Netrebko and Marco Armiliato team up for Verdi Arias.

Performance Date: June 27, 2021

Ottavio Dantone conducts Monteverdi’s “Il Ritorno di Ulisse” in Robert Carsen’s production. Delphine Galou stars.

Performance Dates: June 28-July 8, 2021

Sonya Yoncheva sings a new production of Giordano’s “Siberia” with Arsen Soghomonyan and Gabriele Viviani. Gianandrea Noseda conducts the production by Roberto Andò.

Performance Dates: July 7-24, 2021

Riccardo Muti teams up with his daughter Chiara Muti for Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” with Luca Micheletti, Alessandro Luongo, Mandy Friedrich, Mariangela Sicilia, Giovanni Sala, Fatma Said, and Vittorio Prato.

Performance Dates: July 21-30, 2021

Concerts 

Daniele Gatti conducts a concert with music by Stravinsky, Maderna, and Hindemith.

Performance Date: Sept. 12, 2020

Ádám Fischer and Anna Prohaska team up for a Mozart and Haydn concert.

Performance Date: Oct. 15, 2020

Zubin Mehta conducts Beethoven Symphony No. 8 and No.9 with Genia Kühmeier, Marie-Claude Chappuis, Michael König, and Thomas Hampson.

Performance Date: Dec. 5, 2020

James Levine conducts Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem with Hanna-Elisabeth Müller and Thomas Hampson.

Performance Date: Jan. 17, 2021

 

 

Superstar Concerts 

Zubin Mehta conducts Verdi’s Requiem with Krassimira Stoyanova, Elīna Garanča, Francesco Meli, and Ildar Abdrazakov.

Performance Dates: August 30 & 31, 2020

Edita Gruberová and Peter Valentovič perform a recital of music by Strauss, Donizetti, Thomas, Dvořák, and Bellini.

Performance Date: Oct. 3, 2020

Zubin Mehta concudts Haydn’s “Die Schöpfung” with Hanna-Elisabeth Müller, Patrick Grahl, and Michael Volle.

Performance Date: Oct. 6, 2020

Veronica Simeoni and Michele D’Elia perform a recital with music by Hahn, Massenet, Berlioz, and Saint-Saëns, among others.

Performance Date: Oct. 24, 2020

Lorenzo Fratini conducts the Chorus of the Maggio Musicale with music by Fauré, Puccini, Verdi, Strauss Jr., Rossini, and Bizet, among others.

Performance Date: Nov. 11, 2020

Marco Armiliato conducts New Year’s Eve with Saioa Hernández, Marcelo Álvarez, Ferruccio Furlanetto, and Ludovic Tézier.

Performance Date: Dec. 31, 2020

Children’s Opera

Gianna Fratta conducts “L’elisir d’amore per i bambini” with Davide Gasparro, Marilena Ruta, Dave Monaco, Francesco Samuele Venuti, Qianming Dou, Min Kim, and Giannetta Rosalía Cid. 

Performance Dates: Oct. 23-30, 2020

Mozart’s “Così fan tutti!” will be directed by Manu Lalli

Performance Dates: Nov. 19-26, 2020

The (van) Beethoven Game will be conducted by Pietro Mazzetti and directed by Manu Lalli.

Performance Dates: Dec. 9-15, 2020

Rossinis’ “La Cenerentola per i bambini” will be directed by Ulrich Peter.

Performance Dates: Feb. 25-March 5, 2021

Puccini’s “La principessa di gelo” will be directed by Manu Lalli and conducted by Giuseppe La Malfa.

Performance Dates: March 30-April 1, 2021