From Moulin Rouge to the Arena di Verona, France and Italy toast to conviviality thanks to Verdi

“Libiamo ne’ lieti calici” - “Let us drink from the joyful cups” while dancing the “French Cancan”: it was also a symbolic toast to the beauty of conviviality which makes life sparkling, and that originates thanks to wine, which unites two countries such as Italy and France, where this cultural beverage is part of heritage and national identity. This spirit is embodied in the performance of “La Traviata” by Giuseppe Verdi, composed by him in the mid-19th century in Paris, ready to burst half a century later with the Belle Époque, which in recent days opened the Opera Festival No. 103 at the Arena di Verona, directed by Michele Spotti and directed by the Scottish director Paul Curran, starring Martina Russomanno, Yusif Eyvazov and Amartuvshin Enkhbat. The event was sold out (12,000 spectators, including WineNews, and is scheduled to run until September, ed).
A “premiere” born from a prestigious international collaboration, for the first time in their long histories, between the Arena di Verona, a temple of Italian opera singing and a Unesco heritage site, a monument of the city of Verona, and the most famous cabaret in the world, which since 1889 has illuminated Montmartre with its legendary red windmill, where the “French Cancan” achieved its consecration and for which a Unesco nomination has been proposed. These are two absolute symbols of global entertainment, brought together in a project destined to leave its mark in a triumph of colors and music, with sets by Juan Guillermo Nova, costumes by Stefano Ciammitti and lighting by Fabio Barettin (following the largest-ever toast to Italy Unesco heritage, staged worldwide in recent days to the notes of La Traviata, with the show “Champions of the World - Italy loves Unesco”).
A music which is that of Maestro Verdi: a “tinta”, as he himself described it - as recalled by the Arena Opera Festival - unlike any other work, balancing realism and intimacy, in search of dramatic continuity, and featuring some of the most beautiful pieces in opera history, from the (Champagne) toast to “Amami Alfredo” by Violetta, a “star” of the Moulin Rouge among cancan dancers inside enormous crystal glasses, which have become a shared cultural heritage. Just like wine.