Following its successful launch in 2019, OperaStreaming streams nine operas on YouTube from the historic opera houses of Emilia-Romagna during the 2020-21 season, with fully-staged productions of Verdi's La traviata in October from Modena and Verdi'sOtello from Bologna in November following a concert performance of Ernani from Parma on 25 September.

OperaStreaming brings together eight magnificent opera houses for the joint venture to promote the region's unique operatic heritage, home to legendary singers Luciano Pavarotti, Leo Nucci and Mirella Freni, and the great opera composer Giuseppe Verdi, born in Busseto near Parma. Verdi's Aroldo premiered at the opening of the opera house in Rimini in 1857 and the rebuilt opera house on the site will present a fully staged production of this little-known work on 16 April 2021.

As audiences return to theatres in Italy, OperaStreaming enables opera lovers across the world to view outstanding performances for free from the homeland of bel canto singing. Performances are streamed live and made available indefinitely with full subtitles in Italian and English. During intervals, the camera goes behind-the-scenes of the production for exclusive interview with the cast and team.

Verdi's La traviata is presented from Modena, Pavarotti's birthplace, on 16 October 2020, with Matteo Lippi in the role of Alfredo Germont alongside Maria Mudryak as Violetta Valery and Ernesto Petti as Giorgio Germont, in a unique new production by Stefano Monti, with the orchestra seated in the stalls and the audience in the boxes.

Italian tenor Matteo Lippi studied in Modena under the guidance of Mirella Freni and has recently appeared on the Glyndebourne Festival Tour and sung Alfredo at the Royal Danish Opera and at La Fenice. Khazak soprano Mudryak was one of the winners of the Placido Domingo Operalia competition in 2017 and has performed Violetta across Italy at San Carlo and Maggio Musicale. Previously in Modena, Monti has presented productions of Puccini's Madama Butterfly, Britten's The Little Sweep and Menotti's Il Dittico.

In Bologna, Gregory Kunde takes the title role in Verdi's Otello on 18 November alongside a cast that includes Franco Vassallo as Iago and Mariangela Sicilia as Desdemona, conducted by Asher Fisch in a new production by Gabriele Lavia.

The Teatro "Dante Alighieri" di Ravenna has taken the opportunity in the pandemic to explore repertoire they do not usually cover, presenting a new production of Monteverdi's Orfeo on 28 February 2021 with the Accademia Bizantina conducted by Ottavio Dantone, himself born in Ravenna. Dante Alighieri, who mentioned Orpheus in his Inferno, was buried in Ravenna.

The region of Emilia Romagna is committed to the preservation of its operatic heritage. OperaStreaming has 500,000 viewers and 12,000 subscribers with a large audience in the US. OperaStreaming is a continuation of TeatroNet, the initiative launched by the local department of culture in 2012. The productions are made in collaboration with students from the EDUNOVA E-Learning Center (Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia).

Aldo Sisillo, Director of the Fondazione Teatro Comunale di Modena, said: "The Teatro Comunale di Modena began this initiative to offer extraordinary opportunities to the young students of EDUNOVA to collaborate on such a high-profile international series of digital events."

Paolo Cantù, Director of the Fondazione I Teatri di Reggio Emilia, said: "This is a rare example of a collaboration between eight opera houses. It is a social pact rather than an institutional one."

Tommaso Minerva, Director of EDUNOVA (Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia), said: "It is touching to see audience members as far away as Australia in the middle of the night watching and engaging in sharing ideas during performances."

Watch OperaStreaming on YouTube here

Upcoming Livestreams

Friday 25 September, 20:00 CET, Teatro Regio, Parma

Verdi: Ernani (concert performance)

Piero Pretti - Ernani
Vladimir Stoyanov - Don Carlo
Roberto Tagliavini - Don Ruy De Silva
Eleonora Buratto - Elvira
Carlotta Vichi - Giovanna
Paolo Antognetti - Don Riccardo
Federico Benetti - Jago
Michele Mariotti, conductor
Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini
Coro Del Teatro Regio Di Parma
Martino Faggiani, chorus master

Friday 16 October, 20:00, CET Teatro Comunale "Luciano Pavarotti", Modena

Verdi: La traviata (new production)

Maria Mudryak - Violetta Valery
Matteo Lippi - Alfredo Germont
Ernesto Petti - Giorgio Germont
Ana Victória Pitts - Flora Bervoix
Lucia Paffi - Annina
Antonio Mandrillo - Gastone
Daniel Kim - Barone Douphol
Alex Martini - Marchese d'Obigny
Francesco Leone - Dottore di Grenvil
Alessandro Vannucci - Giuseppe
Alessandro D'Agostini, conductor
Stefano Monti, director
Orchestra Filarmonica Italiana
Coro Lirico di Modena
Stefano Colò, chorus master

Wednesday 18 November, 20:00 CET, Teatro Comunale, Bologna

Verdi: Otello (new production)

Gregory Kunde - Otello
Franco Vassallo - Iago
Marco Miglietta - Cassio
Pietro Picone - Roderigo
Luciano Leoni - Lodovico
Luca Gallo - Montano
Mariangela Sicilia - Desdemona
Asher Fisch, conductor
Gabriele Lavia, director
Alberto Malazzi, chorus master
Alessandro Camera, set designer
Andrea Viotti, costume designer
Gianni Marras, assistant director

27 November 2020: Massenet - Werther (Teatro Comunale, Modena)

29 December 2020: Puccini - Madama Butterfly (Teatro Comunale, Ferrara)

28 February 2021: Monteverdi - Orfeo (Teatro "Dante Alighieri", Ravenna)

28 March 2021: Rossini - Il barbiere di Siviglia (Teatro Municipale, Reggio Emilia)

16 April 2021: Verdi - Aroldo (Teatro ‘Amintore Galli’, Rimini)

18 April 2021: Donizetti - La Favourite | Teatro Municipale, Piacenza)

OperaStreaming

The melodramma tradition in the Emilia-Romagna region, with its stars and the popular passion that has been handed down over the centuries, constitutes a heritage of global interest. Emilia-Romagna is the region of Giuseppe Verdi and of performers who have changed the history of this musical genre such as Carlo Bergonzi, Luciano Pavarotti, Leo Nucci and Mirella Freni. It the enjoys today one of the most prolific musical life in the operatic world thanks to the highest concentration of historical theaters of the nation. Every year, the theaters of Emilia-Romagna produce lyrical performances of the highest standard, thanks not only to the quality of the artists but also to the preservation of a unique mastery and craftmanship in the construction of the operatic productions.

OperaStreaming offers a seasonal program of video broadcasts, freely available on YouTube, from the Opera Theatres of Emilia-Romagna (Bologna, Piacenza, Parma, Reggio Emilia, Modena, Ferrara Ravenna and Rimini) in collaboration with EDUNOVA-University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. The project, that will run from 2019 through 2021, let enjoy Emilia-Romagna's lyric tradition and opera productions from the rest of the world. OperaStreaming was born thanks to TeatroNet, a pioneering streaming program launched by the Culture Department of the Emilia-Romagna Region in 2012 who provided the technology that enabled all theatres to transmit their shows live.

OperaStreaming is a continuation of TeatroNet, the initiative launched by the Department of Culture of the Emilia-Romagna region in 2012 and aimed at streaming musical performances from the theaters and institutions of the territory, and also thanks to the equipment of the fiber optic network put in place by Lepida S.p.A.

Following the experience of TeatroNet, numerous theatres continued and developed in the following years the digital broadcasting channel following, thanks to a state-of-the-art technological endowment, a trend that is emerging as a fundamental component of the international opera scene.

Among these, the Teatro Comunale di Modena has found in the communication by video an indispensable opportunity for the development of the live show and has activated, starting in 2013, a collaboration with the EDUNOVA E-Learning Center, a leading reality in the video production industry. The shows, filmed live in HD, were broadcast regularly and seen in free-to-air on the YouTube platform by tens of thousands of viewers from all over the world.