RICCARDO FRIZZA SHARES HIS VISION FOR THE DONIZETTI OPERA FESTIVAL FOR THE 2025-2027 TRIENNIUM: THE KEYWORD IS ‘EVOLUTION’
Maestro Riccardo Frizza, internationally renowned conductor and musical director of Donizetti Opera since 2017, appointed as artistic director of the event on December 4th by the Board of Directors of the Fondazione Teatro Donizetti, announces his vision for the festival for the 2025-2027 triennium. Under the banner of ‘evolution’, Maestro Frizza intends to continue the path undertaken in recent years with an innovative vision that combines continuity and future.
While the event previously inaugurated its renewed format by revamping the artistic programming and permeating the city with the figure of Donizetti as an illustrious Bergamo native, now the aim is an evolution that brings Gaetano Donizetti the composer back to the center, as the absolute protagonist, accompanied by a cultural project that aspires to consolidate the festival’s position among major international events.
Six fundamental guidelines will direct the event over the next three years, starting with internationality and high artistic quality, for a festival without borders. Indeed, Donizetti Opera intends to strengthen and expand its international dimension, focusing even more on artistic quality and musicological research, to position itself among the great events on the world cultural scene. High-level productions and active dialogue with audiences beyond borders will make the festival a reference point for enthusiasts and experts in the field, as well as for newcomers and curious individuals who want to approach the corpus of the famous Bergamo composer, attracted by events collateral to the artistic programming.
The second strategic objective is building bridges between cultures, thanks to twinnings and co-productions. The festival aims to be a meeting place for different cultures and traditions: in this perspective, co-productions become true twinnings involving the Theatre and the city. They unite communities, interweave stories, stimulate new readings and visions, and create an artistic and cultural contamination that breaks down barriers and differences, for a deeply inclusive event.
The third focal point is making Bergamo the cradle of Voice, thanks to renewed projects and new proposals embracing various arts and disciplines. Starting from the Donizettian bel canto tradition, the voice is celebrated in all its forms, as a contemporary symbol of excellence and creativity.
The fourth objective is the construction of a Donizetti Network: the festival will consolidate the concept, which has made its way in recent years, of ‘Bergamo City of Donizetti’, aiming at further enhancement of the Foundation’s Study Center and the construction of a network that makes Bergamo the epicenter of Donizetti’s heritage to stimulate dialogue on a global level.
Then, on the education and training front, initiatives will see Donizetti Opera for Life Skills: the festival renews its commitment to new generations, integrating Life Skills into educational paths, as recognized by the World Health Organization as positive behaviors in emotional, cognitive, and relational areas, allowing individuals to effectively face daily challenges, both in personal and relational and social terms. The educational programs, designed for children and young people, in collaboration with schools and institutions of all levels, connect dreams, expectations, challenges, and visions of new generations with the universal language of music, in order to guide them to listen to themselves and their own voice as an expression of their vocation.
The final point, completing the strategy, is the reflection that sees ‘the territory in the Theater and the Theater for the territory’. The Donizetti Theater, with its prestigious festival, is increasingly becoming the beating heart of creative Bergamo and is becoming the “House of the City”. A lively and accessible place, even beyond performances, not only for tourists but for the entire community. This is linked to an increasingly close and two-way dialogue with the city’s fervent third sector and the productive fabric of the territory, invited to reflect on the concept of harmonic leadership
“There is much of our Administration’s vision in the project of the new artistic director Riccardo Frizza for the Donizetti Opera 2025-2027: openness, inclusivity, and attractiveness. A project aimed at strengthening internationalization and relaunching the great composer Gaetano Donizetti, projecting Bergamo into the world on the notes of his music.
Culture, we have always said, is a driver of growth, a dynamic resource for building opportunities. Director Frizza’s project goes in this direction, weaving networks of collaboration and planning with other cities, countries, and their cultures, enhancing musicological commitment and bel canto, investing in the education of new generations, and working to bring opera closer to people, not just to passionate audiences. Opera, in fact, is a profoundly universal art that speaks to everyone, beyond technical skills or specific knowledge, always capable of telling the passions, feelings, and stories that belong to every human being.
Even those who are not “insiders” can enter the world of opera, because it does not require expertise to be moved by a powerful voice, a poignant melody, or a staging that amazes and sometimes questions. It is an immediate language that crosses time and borders and continues to speak to all those who want to be involved.
We therefore expect a lot from this new phase and we are certain that it will be a further step towards the affirmation of Bergamo as a city of culture and ‘evolution’,” declares Elena Carnevali, Mayor of the City of Bergamo.
“In the programming proposed by Riccardo Frizza, I particularly appreciate the term evolution: starting from solid foundations to move to a subsequent phase of maturation, growing by relying on a strong and structured identity. It is in line with what we hoped for this new phase of the Donizetti Theater Foundation. The Donizetti Opera will have an increasingly international vocation, bringing new and unprecedented collaborations between our city and other national and European communities, and generating new lifeblood in the city’s artistic production. The theme of alliances is equally stimulating, especially with other important institutions of the city, so rich in different fields and disciplines. An alliance that can be expressed in the development of the theme of the ‘Voice’, the common thread of Donizetti’s production, and above all in the enhancement of Life Skills, a new and original way of bringing music into everyday life, with that usual attention to young generations that the Foundation has long expressed,” states Sergio Gandi, Councilor for Culture of the City of Bergamo.
“The vision of Maestro Riccardo Frizza, already esteemed musical director and now also artistic director of the Donizetti Opera in whom we place full trust, has been favorably received and shared by the Foundation’s Board of Directors, which has grasped its innovation in continuity. This project not only celebrates the centrality of Donizetti’s figure but confirms the prospect of a festival directed towards an increasingly international future. We are certain that, under his guidance, the Donizetti Opera will achieve extraordinary goals, consolidating Bergamo as the capital of voice and bel canto, and a musical reference point in the world,” continues Giorgio Berta, President of the Donizetti Theater Foundation..
“With the word ‘evolution,’ we want to consolidate the role of a festival that is not only a high-level artistic event, but also a driver of cultural, social, and economic growth for Bergamo. Our city, home to the highest Donizetti studies, deserves greater international recognition for its ability to explore, stimulate, innovate, and reinvent itself, starting from tradition. This three-year period will therefore focus on establishing networks and twinning projects, in which dialogue with new international entities will position the city and its Theater as an example of excellence and innovation,” he adds. Massimo Boffelli, Direttore generale della Fondazione.
“After the revolution, of which I was an active part in recent years, which rooted the festival in the fabric of the city of Bergamo, we now want to look forward, strengthening the foundations we’ve built and envisioning a future of growth with an international reach. I envision a festival that evolves without losing its identity, that experiments and consolidates itself by building on tradition and drawing on its strong roots, like the figure of Gianandrea Gavazzeni, father of the so-called “Donizetti Renaissance,” with an increasingly global outlook,” concludes Maestro Riccardo Frizza.
With this ambitious vision, Artistic Director Riccardo Frizza, supported by Marco Vinco as programming coordinator and the renewed Donizetti Opera team, prepares to write a new chapter in the cultural history of Bergamo and its Teatro, for an event that, beyond autumn, enlivens year-round and is an unmissable event for audiences around the world.
