MACERATA OPERA FESTIVAL 2025 – 61ª EDITION
The 61st edition of the Macerata Opera Festival closed to public and critical acclaim thanks to the surprising Vedova Allegra, which made its operetta debut on the stage of the Sferisterio, the successful revivals of Rigoletto and Macbeth with an excellent cast, and the flamenco-inspired Carmen. The new management of the MOF and the city government are therefore very satisfied and are already looking forward to 2026 with confidence thanks to the loyal support of patrons and sponsors, the approval of the public, and the great interest aroused in the international media by the festival. In fact, from July 17 to August 9, 2026, Nabucco in a new production, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Il Trovatore, and Carmina Burana will shape the musical future of the city’s most famous monument, a true flagship of the Marche region’s style around the world.
The opera season had already opened with exceptional numbers thanks to Sferisterio a Scuola and its 16,000 attendees from all over the region, and the positive trend continued throughout the festival, not only for the core performances, with an average attendance of over 2,000 paying guests, including about nine groups per evening from all over Europe – but the atmosphere of happy participation also had an excellent impact on the many side events connected to the MOF, from the always sold-out Cultural Aperitifs to the excellent response to the exhibition Una golosa serata di gala (A Delicious Gala Evening), conceived and curated by the Amici dello Sferisterio association; and InclusivOpera, which involved around 300 people with disabilities from all over Italy, confirming its world excellence in the field of inclusion, not to mention InOpera and the brilliant success of the new Rigoletto AudioTour with over 200 participants. The closing concerts of the Andrea Bocelli Foundation masterclasses, in collaboration with the Royal College of Music and the Vincenzo Balzani Foundation, were also highly appreciated, offering a real window on the opera of tomorrow.
The feedback from the national and, above all, international media was also very positive, with growing interest not only from areas traditionally linked to the Macerata Opera Festival, such as German-speaking countries, but also with a considerable increase in coverage in French, English, and Spanish-language media, as well as the first serious steps towards involving the United States and its huge potential audience in the project.
In this climate of great optimism and serenity, both on the artistic front, thanks to the success of all the casts, and on the economic front, with the confirmation of new public and private resources and box office sales, with a sold-out final weekend of performances, the new Superintendent Lucia Chiatti and the new Artistic Director Marco Vinco are announcing the 2026 season a year in advance and the opening of ticket sales on September 10.
The grand opening will take place on July 17, 2026, with a new production of Verdi’s Nabucco entrusted to Belgian dean Paul-Émile Fourny, with Fabrizio Maria Carminati conducting, fresh from this year’s excellent Macbeth. Then, on July 18, 2026, there will be a new foray into lightheartedness with Rossini’s Il Barbiere, a revival of Daniele Menghini’s successful 2022 production, conducted by Milanese Gianluca Martinenghi. The Verdi Popular Trilogy continues on July 19, 2026, with Francisco Negrin’s 2013 production of Il Trovatore, revived in 2016, conducted by Russian-German Dmitri Jurowski. Finally, the great 20th century of Orff’s powerful Carmina Burana on August 7, conducted by Ramón Tebar, a particularly well-established name in the American music scene.
