Ravello Festival between Kent Nagano's Wagner and the origins of Frank Zappa

The garden suspended over the sea of Villa Rufolo once again becomes one of the world's most evocative musical stages with the 74th edition of the Ravello Festival, scheduled in the town on the Amalfi Coast from 4 July to 5 September. Twenty-two events including opera, the great symphonic repertoire, baroque, jazz, chamber music, and musical theatre make up a programme of international scope, conceived as a unified itinerary capable of bringing together different eras, languages, and traditions.

The inauguration is set for Saturday 4 July (8 pm) on the Belvedere with the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino conducted by Daniele Gatti, who will combine Wagner's Siegfried-Idyll with Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 'Eroica'. The next day (8 p.m.) we travel to rock contaminations with the Zappa & Zappa project by the ensemble Il Pomo d'Oro and Giovanni Sollima, an original encounter between the music of Frank Zappa and his Italian ancestor Francesco Zappa, who played the cello in the 18th century in Italia. The opening weekend is enhanced by the vernissage of the exhibition dedicated to William Kentridge, in collaboration with the Lia Rumma Gallery.

The Festival opens to the city on Friday 10 July (at 7.30 p.m.) in Piazza Duomo withFresco by Luca Francesconi, a composition for five orchestras in space, entrusted to local band ensembles. On Saturday 11 July the programme doubles: at 6 pm, in the Church of San Giovanni del Toro, Francesconi's Risonanze d'Orfeo; at 8 pm, on the Belvedere, L'Orfeo by Claudio Monteverdi conducted by Jordi Savall with Le Concert des Nations and La Capella Reial de Catalunya, an Italian exclusive. Sunday 12 July (8 pm) is the turn of the National Opera Orchestra of Bucharest, conducted by Daniel Jinga, with violinist Alexandru Tomescu.

The month of July continues on Friday 17 (8 pm) with the Ensemble Pygmalion conducted by Raphaël Pichon and the baritone Stéphane Degout, then on Sunday 19 (8 pm) with a recital by pianist Jan Lisiecki. Friday 24th July (8.00 pm) sees the return to Ravello of the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai conducted by Emmanuel Tjeknavorian, while Wednesday 29th July (8.00 pm, Sala dei Cavalieri) sees the performance of Piccinni e Gluck, una corona per due, a project of music and words with Sergio Rubini. One of the most eagerly awaited appointments is on Friday 31 July (8 pm) with Kent Nagano, the Dresdner Festspielorchester and Concerto Köln for the Wagnerian project on historical instruments: on the programme are the prologue and the first act of Götterdämmerung.

August opens in the sign of jazz: Thursday 6 (9.30 p.m.) Andrea Motis Trio, Friday 7 (9.30 p.m.) Rita Marcotulli Ensemble, Saturday 8 (9.30 p.m.) the Tribute to Miles Davis with Rick Margitza and an ensemble of great jazz musicians. The Festival's symbolic moment is obviously the Dawn Concert on Tuesday 11 August (5.15 pm) with the Philharmonic Orchestra "Giuseppe Verdi" of Salerno conducted by Alessandro Palumbo.