(November 2026) — The 2026 edition of the Arena di Verona Opera Festival was its most successful to date. Held this past summer over the course of 51 nights in the 10,000-seat, open-air Roman amphitheater at the heart of the Italian city of Verona, the festival’s 103rd season attracted an unprecedented 416,600 audience members – 12,000 more than the previous summer – of whom a record-breaking 11% were under 30years old. Box office takings made festival history, totalling close to $41.5 million (€37 million), almost $1.7 million (€1.5 million) more than in 2025. No fewer than 19performances were completely sold out, and, with takings of $1.21 million (€1.079 million), the June 13 performance of La traviata surpassed the record set two years ago, becoming the festival’s highest-grossing single evening to date. Attendance by Italians rose by 24%, while foreign visitors, representing 131 different countries, made up 57% of the total. The expansion of the festival’s “Arena per Tutti” accessibility project saw 1,485 people with disabilities take part in 19 multisensory experiences and 26 evening performances featuring special technological and digital aids. The festival reached more than 63 million users online, including 34,000 social media followers, while TV broadcasts attracted 1.3 million primetime viewers. In addition, no fewer than 6,400 articles and features about the festival were published worldwide. Full details of the festival’s record-breaking 2026 summer season are provided here.

This success looks set to continue next summer. The 2027 season opens with a grand-scale orchestral and choral concert; details to be announced (June 11). Marking the first full-length ballet at the Arena in 34 years, Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet returns to the city where Shakespeare set his famous story, now starring Nicoletta Manni and Timofej Andrijashenko in a new production featuring Franco Zeffirelli’s classic set designs and new choreography by Manuel Legris (June 18–Aug 20). Four of the summer’s five operatic productions are devoted to Verdi: La traviata, in a return of Paul Curran’s season-opening 2026 staging (June 25–Sep 11); Nabucco, as envisioned by Stefano Poda(July 29–Sep 9); and Aïda, both in the historical staging by Gianfranco de Bosio that draws inspiration from the original Arena production of 1913 (June 12–Aug 7) and in the “crystal” edition created by Poda for the 100th festival (Aug 12–Sep 8). Also returning is Bizet’s Carmen, in Zeffirelli’s beloved and record-breaking staging (July 2–Sep 10). Complementing these productions are multiple special events. Tenor Jonas Kaufmannheadlines an evening of operatic favorites (Aug 8), and the amphitheater hosts the returns of Orff’s Carmina Burana, featuring a full orchestra, chorus, and children’s choir (Aug 29); Roberto Bolle and Friends, celebrating the star principal dancer of Milan’s La Scala Theatre Ballet in a co-production with ArteDanza SRL (July 8 & 21); and two innovative multimedia concerts created in collaboration with the Balich Wonder Studio: “Viva Vivaldi”: The Four Seasons Immersive Concert (Aug 24) and “Paganini Paradise”: Superlive Immersive Concert (Aug 25). For tickets and further details of the 2027 festival, click here.