The current Ravello Festival is the oldest of the Italian festivals after the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Girolamo Bottiglieri and Paolo Caruso devised the idea for the cultural event which has contributed towards Ravello's status as "Città della musica". 

Villa Rufolo inspired in 1880 Richard Wagner to create some scenes of Parsifal. Since then the Villa has been stage to Wagnerian concerts, including the "Wagnerian concert in the gardens of Klingsor" performed by the Orchestra of San Carlo Theatre from Naples.

Today the Ravello Festival takes place here spring, summer and autumn long. The Festival main venue includes a suspended stage, build around the gardens of the Villa and hanging above a cliff 350 metres (1,150 feet) above the sea. A full musical teaching program runs in parallel with a series of concerts by artists and musicians attracted here, where the music is rivalled in excellence only by the location - the stunning landscape of the Amalfi Coast.

Every edition of the Ravello Festival exhibits a rich array of occasions, from symphonic to chamber music, from opera to ballet, from cinema to visual arts. Leading musical formations, prestigious artists and outstanding personalities have been called upon to make this array all the more precious.

Most concerts start at a conventional hour, 6.30pm, but on August 10th, is a particularly memorable note in the diary of many from around the world. As always on this date, the concert of the Ravello Festival begins at five in the morning, to catch the sunrise and the dawn chorus.

For more information regarding the Ravello Music Festival please visit www.ravellofestival.com.