The medieval charm of the city of Spoleto in the Umbria region of Italy seems to be totally untouched by the twenty-first century. Its preserved ancient streets and squares serve as a perfectly thematic backdrop for the performances, events, and activities of the Festival dei Due Mondi.
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About the festival
The Festival dei Due Mondi, also known as the Festival of the Two Worlds, is an annual summer cultural festival held each June to early July in Spoleto – and one of the most famous of its kind. It usually starts on the last Friday of June and lasts for 17 days.
The main characters of this event are music, theater, opera, and other means of performance arts. During the 17 days of the event, numerous performances, including music concerts, opera, dance, drama, visual arts, and round-table discussions on culture and science, are held in the paved streets, traditional theaters, and old-styled pavilions of Spoleto.
This year, the festival will be held from Friday, 24 June, to Sunday, 10 July, 2022 – if you are in the area at that time, don’t miss it out!
Since many people from all over the world attend the festival and there is a high demand for tickets and accommodation, we recommend checking hotel rates and booking rooms in advance.
Concept
The main concept of the Festival dei Due Mondi is that it is the crossroads between two cultures, two different artistic dimensions – the American and the European. Through music, dance, drama, and visual arts, the event aspires to contrast and celebrate the differences in style of the two cultures separated by the Atlantic. The festival celebrates art in all of its shapes and expressions and provides a meeting ground for cultures of North America and Europe, showcasing both established and emerging artists in more than 150 performances of opera, dance, theater, classical music, and jazz. The event pursues the union between the avant-garde and classic traditions as well, which is reflected in the way old-styled architecture and stone-paved squares of the city become set designs for modern performance art.
Before the 1990s, the idea was further strengthened by the fact that it was held in conjunction with its counterpart festival: the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina, the twin town of Spoleto. Because of consistent discrepancies, the festivals, unfortunately, stopped collaborating. The American festival still exists, though – this year it is held from Friday, May 27, to Sunday, June 12, 2022, a little earlier than the Italian one, with a two-day overlap. Every year, both festivals attract dozens of musicians, writers, poets, dancers, puppet artists, public speakers, filmmakers, painters, and other artists, along with thousands of guests.
History
The conception of the Festival of the Two Worlds was conceived in the mind of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Gian Carlo Menotti (1911-2007). An American composer of Italian descent, Menotti was the incorporation of the ‘two-world’ concept.
In search for the perfect place to hold his trademark festival, he visited many Italian cities and towns, until he finally settled for Spoleto – he was charmed by its Piazza del Duomo as well as theaters, churches, and other performance spaces of the city. The historic city was the ideal choice: it was intimate enough so that the festival would captivate the entire city, yet cosmopolitan enough to provide an engaged audience and fairly reliable infrastructure.
The first festival was held as early as 1958, and throughout the years such prominent performers as Mikhail Baryshnikov, Joaquin Cortes, Twyla Tharp, and Luciano Pavarotti were attracted to participation in it. Today, the Festival of Two Worlds is still one of the most significant and avant-garde cultural events in the entire world.
