Ravenna Festival with its Autumn Trilogy and Riccardo Muti’s Italian Opera Academy presented in Shanghai and Beijing.
Ravenna is protagonist of the touristic appeal of the Emilia-Romagna Region, as presented to the Chinese audience, thanks to the city’s ability to combine first-rate cultural activities with a unique historic-artistic heritage and a genuinely Italian lifestyle. During the two presentations, respectively on November 22 at the Westin on Bund Center in Shanghai and on November 24 at the Italian Cultural Institute in Beijing, Chinese press and cultural tour operators were offered a preview of the highlights of the next season: Ravenna Festival, with its summer programme (June 1 – July 22) and the Autumn Trilogy (November 23 – December 2), and Riccardo Muti’s Italian Opera Academy (July 21 – August 3).
The city of Ravenna was invited, as one of the cultural and touristic resources of the Emilia-Romagna Region, to take parte in the international mission led by President of the Region Stefano Bonaccini: an intense programme of meetings and events dedicated to the increasingly tight and fruitful relationships with the Eastern country. The invitation turned into a chance to promote and celebrate the deep ties connecting the city of Ravenna to its Festival, including the successful invention of the Autumn Trilogy that since 2012 has extended the Festival’s programme with important results in terms of incoming, as well as Riccardo Muti’s choice to set his Academy dedicated to the great tradition of the Italian Opera (to Macbeth in 2018) in Ravenna.
Minister of Tourism of the Municipality of Ravenna Giacomo Costantini joined the delegation for the meetings with the Chinese press and TO; among the other Italian representatives Liviana Zanetti, President of APT which contributed to the management of the events, and Andrea Gnassi, President of the Romagna Destination. First in the heart of the famous Bund in Shanghai, an architectural gem of the Thirties that still stands for the international vocation of the city; then at the Cultural Institute of the Italian Embassy in Beijing, a reference point for all the lovers of the Italian culture in the Chinese capital city.
An extraordinary UNESCO heritage; a Festival able to feature the most diverse languages and choose the most precious and historic places of the city and its surroundings as venues; the chance to discover the great opera tradition with Riccardo Muti’s guidance within his Academy, for which the Alighieri Theatre welcomes both young conductors – selected to work with the Maestro – and the general audience to attend the full programme of rehearsal and final concerts, as the secrets of the music construction and interpretation are revealed. These are some of the reasons which make Ravenna – historically a gate open to the East – an ideal destination for the Chinese people: this audience, constantly growing in quality and quantity, represents a true new age for the cultural tourism founded on the passion for the Italian culture and music.