— Overview
This reading sets the Arena di Verona Festival in Veneto, each year from June to September, in a town of some two hundred thousand between Milan and Venice. They date the first night to 10 August 1913, for Verdi’s hundredth year, and credit the tenor Giovanni Zenatello and the director Ottone Rovato. Aida’s run, a count of 1,913 performances to 1997, and a UNESCO listing in 2000 stay in the window this reading gives.
— Contents and key concepts
A town between two cities, and a first night in 1913
The Arena di Verona Festival, this reading says, is a world-known opera festival held each year from June to September in Verona, in Italy’s Veneto. Verona itself is a small northern city of some two hundred thousand people, set about halfway between Milan and Venice, each about an hour and a half away by train. Old walls wrap the centre, and the Adige draws a long curve through it.
The festival first opened, they write, on 10 August 1913, to mark one hundred years since Giuseppe Verdi’s birth. It began as the idea of a tenor, Giovanni Zenatello, and an opera director, Ottone Rovato. The ‘Arena di Verona’ where it is held means, simply, Verona’s amphitheatre: an ancient arena this reading calls among the best preserved, with room for about thirty thousand people.
From a Roman arena to a house that needs no roof
The building was, as the name says, a place for games. After the Renaissance, this reading says, it became a theatre. From the 1850s it began to be used for opera because of its remarkable acoustics. Even now, they write, it has no roof, and many parts are damaged, yet almost every seat is said to carry the sound perfectly. That claim is this reading’, and is left in their wording.
The Aida staged in that Roman ruin in 1913 was, in this telling, the largest opera yet given in an open-air theatre anywhere. It succeeded so well that, this reading says, the festival had given Aida alone 1,913 performances by 1997. The number is theirs, kept in that count’s window, and not recast as a later official total.
Ten years of silence, and a listing in 2000
Except for ten years during the First and Second World Wars, this reading says, the festival has been held every year. In 2000, they add, Verona was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, a later honour they place beside the reason the festival has lasted. The same Korean essay, at fuller length, is on CampusDown.
Sources
- The Arena di Verona Festival, as named in this reading
- UNESCO listing of Verona in 2000, as recorded in this reading
Last updated: 14 November 2026
Frequently asked questions
When do this reading says the festival began?
On 10 August 1913, to mark one hundred years since Verdi’s birth. The tenor Giovanni Zenatello planned it with the opera director Ottone Rovato.
What do this reading claims about Aida?
That first open-air Aida was, they say, the largest opera yet staged in an outdoor theatre, and that by 1997 the festival had given Aida alone 1,913 performances. The figure is left as written in this reading.
What happened in 2000, in this reading?
Verona was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. This reading also says the festival has been held every year except for ten years of the two world wars.
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