Opera Festival 2025: Stefano Poda directs new production of Nabucco
Presales for the 102nd Season open from today on the Arena website, in TicketOne sales outlets and at the ticket office
Stefano Poda will be the director, set, costume, lighting and choreography designer of the new production of Nabucco that will inaugurate the Arena di Verona Opera Festival 2025. After the success of his Arena debut, in 2023, with the 'crystal' Aida at the 100th Festival, the Italian director, set designer, choreographer, costume designer and designer is preparing to return to Verona's Roman amphitheatre for Giuseppe Verdi's choral drama, the third most performed opera ever in the Arena with a total of 239 performances since 1938.
The announcement was made by Stefano Poda himself, who just yesterday was nominated as one of the winners of the Abbiati Prize of Italian music critics, together with the Superintendent of the Fondazione Arena Cecilia Gasdia and the Deputy Artistic Director Stefano Trespidi.
"After the 'crystal' Aida, a performance that brought to the stage an interweaving of arts and styles never seen before in the Arena, bringing a new and multifaceted public closer to the Opera", says the Superintendent Cecilia Gasdia, "we are proud to entrust the new 2025 production of Nabucco to Stefano Poda who, with his work, makes the future present".
"The stage of the Arena allows us to experiment with new and different solutions, for which one needs an artistic spirit and creative genius - underlines Deputy Artistic Director Stefano Trespidi -. With Stefano Poda we started a wonderful collaboration last year, for Aida, which continued in the exhibition-installation protagonist of the Fuorisalone of Milan's Design Week. And now with this innovative project on Nabucco'.
"The Arena of Verona is the most extraordinary open-air theatre in the world, last year's experience left a deep mark on me and I am proud to be able to announce my return," emphasises director Stefano Poda. "On stage, my language will be aimed at creating a peculiar Nabucco that can only exist in the Arena: not a theatre title, not just an opera date, but a festival event, of total art, that can conquer both fans and a truly wider audience.
Arena Opera Festival 2025: the complete programme and tickets
Check out the full programme for Edition 102, and book your tickets - you won't want to miss it!
And from today, Saturday 27 April, presales open for the 102nd Arena di Verona Opera Festival 2025. More than 400 days in advance. For the first time, the Fondazione Arena is accelerating ticket sales to meet the needs of an increasingly international audience. Last year the world's largest open-air theatre welcomed spectators from 125 countries.
As many as 46 evenings from 13 June to 6 September 2025, with five opera titles, including the new production of Nabucco, and three evening events. Tickets, from today, are available on the website www.arena.it, at the Arena's central ticket office, in via Dietro Anfiteatro - Verona, and within the TicketOne circuit, manager of the service with UniCredit, for over 25 years major partner of the Fondazione Arena.
Inaugurating the 102nd Festival, with a dedicated double evening on 13 and 14 June 2025, and a total of 12 performances until 5 September, will be Giuseppe Verdi's Nabucco directed by Stefano Poda, who will sign the direction, sets and costumes. His will also be Verdi's Aida in the 'crystal' edition that will be staged from 20 June to 4 September, for 13 evenings. Games of light, transparencies, and costumes that skilfully combine high fashion and rich Egyptian symbolism. Verdi's La Traviata will be staged from 27 June to 2 August for 6 performances, in Hugo De Ana's elegant 2011 production, amidst belle époque frames, tapestries, and mirrors. Not to be missed, on the 150th anniversary of its creation, is Georges Bizet's Carmen, in the beloved "colossal" staging according to Franco Zeffirelli. For eight evenings, from 4 July to 3 September, the plaza of Seville and its surroundings will be reconstructed with attention to detail and cinematic flair. The programme will be completed in the sign of Verdi with four performances of Rigoletto, from 8 August to 6 September, and with three evenings of events: the great dance of Roberto Bolle and Friends will feature the étoile of the two worlds and the stars of ballet from classical to contemporary on two dates, 22 and 23 July, while on 15 August Carl Orff's spectacular Carmina Burana will return to the immense stage of the Arena with a full orchestra, choir and treble voices.
