The 68th edition of the Spoleto Festival dei Due Mondi is scheduled from Friday, June 27 to Sunday, July 13, 2025. Opera, Music, Dance, Theater, Art, Performance: Spoleto is once again the host city for Italy’s oldest performing arts festival. Over 60 companies are expected, with more than 700 artists from 13 countries participating in more than 60 performances.
Under the direction of Monique Veaute, the festival continues to focus on interdisciplinary dialogue, offering a diverse program that aims to redefine the languages of art. The 68th Festival dei Due Mondi radiates from a “song of the earth,” with the music of Gustav Mahler subtly woven into the lineup, both directly and indirectly. Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erdeencapsulates a variety of meanings related to living in our time, and its influence can be traced in various forms throughout the festival. These include the Lied that defines the doubled cycle of midday concerts, chamber and symphonic performances by numerous guest ensembles, as well as creations in dance, theater, and visual arts.
Looking through the lens of art becomes a tool for interpreting our present, as reflected in the works of figures such as William Kentridge – who also designed the manifesto for the 68th edition – Ersan Mondtag, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Clément Cogitore, all featured in the program. These artists are engaging with new forms of expression: opera, musical theater, drama, or concert.
The inauguration on Friday, June 27 at the Teatro Nuovo Gian Carlo Menotti will feature the opera Hadrian by New York composer Rufus Wainwright, accompanied by the images of Robert Mapplethorpe. A diverse range of musical theater experiences follows: in The Great Yes the Great No, William Kentridge creates a multidimensional performance blending chamber opera, oratorio, and theater. Ersan Mondtag and the Berliner Ensemble present Woyzeck by Georg Büchner, with live musicians. Alessandro Baricco brings an original version of Novecento to Spoleto, alongside Stefano Bollani and Enrico Rava. Cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton collaborates with visual artist and opera director Clément Cogitore to bring her memories to life.
The chamber music concerts are doubling in number, with an additional afternoon session added to the midday concerts. A series dedicated to vocal and piano repertoire will feature internationally renowned performers such as Sandrine Piau, Benjamin Appl, Matthew Rose, Lea Desandre, Raffaele Pe and La Lira di Orfeo. The musicians from the festival’s resident orchestras will also play an essential role: the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and the Budapest Festival Orchestra, which will perform the version of Das Lied von der Erde by Gustav Mahler, transcribed for small orchestra by Arnold Schönberg, as well as Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 for the closing concert in Piazza Duomo, conducted by Iván Fischer. For the first time in Spoleto, the String Quartet and the Percussion Ensemble from Teatro alla Scala will perform. Western music will blend with the echoes of an ancient tradition, with the debut of the Chinese Amber Quartet and a concert by sitar virtuoso Anoushka Shankar in Piazza Duomo. Also highly anticipated is the rising Japanese pianist Hayato Sumino, who will perform in Italy for the first time. In addition to the opening opera, Rufus Wainwright will also give a solo concert in Piazza Duomo.
The music of Gustav Mahler sets the rhythm for the contemporary circus company Circa. On the 150th anniversary of Maurice Ravel’s birth, choreographer Shahar Binyamini tackles the famous Boléro for the second time in his career. The original music for the new performance by the Sydney Dance Company, led by Rafael Bonachela, is composed by Bryce Dessner, the leader of The National and a Grammy Award winner. The dancers of Andalusian choreographer Blanca Li, who returns to the festival after the success of Le Bal de Paris, perform to Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. Fattoria Vittadini creates a new immersive and sensory experience at the Complesso Monumentale di San Nicolò.
Breaking boundaries – whether linguistic, philosophical, or expressive – while maintaining the literary essence of theater is also the focus of our best playwrights and actors. Luca Marinelli returns to Spoleto as both director and actor to perform Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino. Thirty years after its debut, Federico Tiezzi and Sandro Lombardi bring Edipus by Giovanni Testori back to the stage. Massimo Popolizio presents his new directorial work, a world premiere starring Umberto Orsini, and also guides graduates from the Accademia Nazionale Silvio d’Amico in a collection of texts inspired by infamous literary murderers. Piero Maccarinelli’s new direction, inspired by Giovanni Grasso’s novel L’amore non lo vede nessuno, is conceived for the spaces of San Simone. The company #SIneNOmine presents its new show, born from a workshop in the Spoleto Prison.
Alongside the official program, the collateral events and special happenings make Spoleto a vibrant hub for contemporary artistic creation: artist encounters, awards, art installations, and exhibitions. The work of the Carla Fendi Foundationcontinues, and in collaboration with Mahler & LeWitt Studios, it hosts the Centre for the Less Good Idea by William Kentridge in Spoleto. The Musica da Casa Menotti series by the Monini Foundation and the Una Finestra su Due Mondi award also continue. This year, the festival hosts the theater series and workshops organized by the Accademia Nazionale d’Arte Drammatica Silvio d’Amico, as well as the La MaMa Spoleto Open series, which showcases the experiences of the most talented emerging actors, directors, and companies from the international scene, enriched this year with a special program for younger audiences. The partnership with Rai Per la Sostenibilità-ESG continues, within the projects on social, economic, and environmental sustainability launched by the Foundation. Throughout the festival, visitors can explore the exhibition dedicated to the festival costumes at the Via Saffi spaces and the exhibition dedicated to William Kentridge at Palazzo Collicola.
William Kentridge, one of the most prominent living artists, is the creator of the manifesto for the 68th edition. Born in Johannesburg in 1955, he is internationally acclaimed for his ability to combine drawing, writing, film, performance, music, and theater into an artistic language that merges political reflection with poetic and aesthetic dimensions. Raised in South Africa during the apartheid regime, he studied art before moving to Paris, where he graduated from the Jacques Lecoq mime school, further deepening his studies in acting and theater direction. This blend of visual and performing arts has been a fundamental and distinctive feature of his work since the 1970s. His creations have been exhibited in the world's most prestigious museums and galleries, including the MoMA in New York, the Louvre in Paris, and the Reina Sofia in Madrid. In 2016, he founded the Centre for the Less Good Idea in Johannesburg, a space dedicated to experimentation and collaboration between artists from different disciplines.
The 68th edition of the Festival dei Due Mondi is promoted by the Ministry of Culture, the Umbria Region, and the Municipality of Spoleto. It is made possible with the support of the Carla Fendi Foundation (Main Partner), the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Spoleto, and Banco Desio. Special thanks to Intesa Sanpaolo (Premium Supporter), Monini (Official Sponsor), as well as other supporters, partners, and technical sponsors. Media partners include RAI (Main Media Partner), la Repubblica, and Il Messaggero. APA Roma is the Advertising partner.