The current Ravello Festival is the oldest of Italy’s festivals after the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Girolamo Bottiglieri and Paolo Caruso came up with the idea for the cultural event, which has greatly contributed to Ravello's status as "Città della musica".
The beautiful Villa Rufolo inspired Richard Wagner, in 1880, to create scenes for his opera Parsifal. Since then, the Villa has served as a stage for Wagnerian concerts—the "Wagnerian concert in the gardens of Klingsor" was famously performed by the Orchestra of San Carlo Theatre in the 1930s.
Today the Ravello Festival takes place all summer long, its musical excellence rivalled only by the stunning location. The main venue, in the gardens of Villa Rufolo, has a dramatic suspended stage, hanging over a cliff 350 metres above the sea. A full musical teaching programme runs in parallel with the series of concerts by world-class artists and musicians.
The programme offers a rich array of arts, from symphonic to chamber music, opera to ballet performances, and cinema to visual arts. Most concerts start at 6.30pm, but every year, on August 10, the music ritually strikes up at 5am against the mesmerising backdrop of the sunrise over the Mediterranean and the sounds of the dawn chorus.
For more information regarding the Ravello Festival please visit www.ravellofestival.com.
