Septenote

Vicenza's unmissable jazz routes

The glorious Glyndebourne Opera Festival in England kicks off; the musical 'Cats' returns to Rome

14 May 2025

3' min read

In Vicenza, the 29th edition of the New Conversations jazz festival, opened by the only Italian date of the legendary Kronos Quartet; concerts in the most beautiful buildings - and of course in the Palladian Teatro Olimpico, a Unesco heritage site. But not only in indoor spaces: a myriad of smaller live performances, at dusk but also late at night, in bookshops, shops, cafés and other spaces will flood the urban fabric.

On the lawns of East Sussex the Glyndebourne Opera Festival kicks off: it opens with 'Parsifal'. The musical 'Cats' returns to Rome.

Vicenza

Jazz in the city, with the 29th edition of New Conversations, from 15 to 25 May. Opening at the Teatro Olimpico with the renowned Kronos Quartet, the only Italian date on the international tour celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2023. The same venue (a Unesco heritage site), on the 16th, the Al Di Meola trio; then, on Saturday 17th, it will be The Day and Night of the Museums, concerts starting at 4 pm with the last one at 10.30 pm in the city's symbolic cultural venues, from the Loggia del Capitaniato to Palazzo Thiene, from the Church of S. Corona to Palazzo Chiericati and Palazzo Leoni Montanari. Concerts yes - but also the celebration on the 21st of the civil rights icon, Rosa Louise Parks, twenty years after her death and seventy years after the gesture that made her world famous - the refusal to give up her seat on the bus to a white male, with William Parker and the reciting voice of Celeste Dalla Porta, the protagonist of Sorrentino's Parthenope. In addition, a myriad of smaller live performances, at dusk but also late at night, in bookshops, shops, cafés and other spaces will flood the urban fabric, transforming the city into a whirlwind of beats and sounds for ten days.

Glyndebourne Festival Opera 2005

Lewes (UK)

The big summer festivals begin. From 16 May to 24 August is the Glyndebourne Opera Festival, which has been presenting performances in this unique setting in the English meadows since 1934. The first new production is Wagner's 'Parsifal', from 17 May to 24 June; this is the first time the Festival has staged this demanding opera. In the company Daniel Johansson in the title role and Eva-Maria Westbroek as Kundry; the direction is by Robin Ticciati, the Festival's music director; with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Dutch director Jetske Mijnssen, making her Festival debut.

The other new production is 'Le nozze di Figaro', by Mozart; and then the filming of 'The Barber of Seville', 'Saul', 'Falstaff', 'Katia Kabanova'.

Rome

Until 18 May at the Sistina Theatre the musical "Cats", music by Andrew Lloyd Webber; words by T.S. Eliot, Trevor Nunn, Richard Stilgoe; direction and Italian adaptation by Massimo Romeo Piparo. Choreography by Billy Mitchell, London's West End choreographer, who has worked on other Lloyd Webber musicals, from 'School of Rock' to 'Cinderella'; live orchestra.

It is taken from Nobel Prize winner Eliot's 'Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats'. On a special night of the year, all the cats of Jellicle meet at the Ball where Old Deuteronomy, their wise and benevolent leader, chooses and announces which of them will be reborn to a new life as Jellicle. But the feline party is disturbed by two events: Old Deuteronomy's kidnapping and the appearance of Grizabella, the charming cat-glamour who, after leaving the Jellicles to explore the world, suffers exclusion and rejection from the pack and launches her desperate and melancholic appeal with the famous song 'Memory', recorded by Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion, Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, José Carreras, Milva, Ute Lemper, among others, and by Jennifer Hudson in the 2019 film.