LYRIC FESTIVAL OF STONE THEATERS 2023 - Edition V

LYRIC FESTIVAL OF STONE THEATERS 2023 – EDITION V

After the public and critical success of the 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 editions of the Stone Theaters Opera Festival, the Sicilian Opera Choir wanted to continue the artistic and cultural event by expanding the network of interested theaters and above all by focusing on the great quality of the artists and programming.

<<Near these places, Pluto kidnapped Proserpina from her mother... Apollo has guarded the herds in these valleys; these groves... have resounded with the panpipe; the nymphs have lost their way under their shadows and breathed in their perfume. Here Galatea fled Polyphemus, and Akis, on the verge of succumbing to the blows of his rival, still enchanted these shores and left his name on them... In the distance you can see Lake Hercules and the rocks of the Cyclops. Land of gods and heroes!>>

Thus wrote the vicomte Alexis de Tocqueville, philosopher, politician, historian and precursor of sociology.

After almost two centuries, many things have changed, but the charm of the places has remained intact, regardless of the passage of time, and the legend continues its enchanted journey towards eternity.

Land of myths and gods, where the first human traces date back to 12,000 BC. C. Land of Thapsos, Castelluccio and Stentinello, of Sicani, Sicels and Elimi, Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans, of Vandals, Ostrogoths and Byzantines, Arabs and Normans, Angevins and Aragonese.

In this unique context, where there are about twenty splendid theaters of antiquity, the Opera Festival of Stone Theaters was born, which aims to unite under a single banner some of the largest, most important, and best preserved ancient theaters of the Sicily, those of Syracuse, Taormina and Tindari.

The music of the most famous composers of the operatic and symphonic tradition will resound among the ancient stones of the thousand-year-old cave of the Trinàcria, for a festival that already promises to be an unprecedented success, interpreted by some of the greatest artists on the world stages: authentic stars of the national and international opera scene will give life to poignant melodies composed by the most important authors in the history of opera, with full involvement of the public.

Since 2022, the Festival promoted by the Sicilian Lyrical Choir has begun its journey to becoming a Mediterranean theater festival, with the aim of transforming the historical stones into a musical encounter.

Along the shores of the Mediterranean, the ancient Roman and Greek theaters continue to bear witness to a past that is striking for the modernity with which it has been able to express the desire of human beings to have fun and learn, through the representation of the eternal struggle between good and evil; built in stone, marble or carved into the rock, the theaters of the Mare Nostrum are places to be revived through symphonic and operatic music and this was the 2022 mission of the acclaimed artistic and concert event which, starting from Greek and Roman Sicily, arrived at the archaeological sites in Calabria (Locri, Soriano Calabro and ancient Kaulon) and at the Roman amphitheater of El Jem, in Tunisia, the third largest amphitheater in the world.

For the 2023 edition, some of the most eminent and significant theaters in the Mediterranean will be involved; a "cultural bridge" where Sicily, the privileged seat of Magna Graecia, will be the protagonist in transmitting its eternal, evocative and millenary heritage and immaterial identity to the world.

A living, breathing Mediterranean that opens up to the "awakening" of great music thanks to the ability of the Sicilian Opera Choir, which has become a prestigious body and a reference not only on the national but also international scene.