A Summer of Sound with Teatro Massimo at Villa Igiea in Palermo

The Summer Programme:

Aida, 22–24 May & 26–31 May

Verdi's Aida opens proceedings in late May, and few operas make better use of a stage of this scale. The production calls for everything the Teatro Massimo can offer – monumental set pieces, lavish staging, and a cast of considerable size – while Verdi's score builds with relentless power towards moments of shattering emotional intensity.

Symphony No. 9 by Ludwig van Beethoven, 9–10 June

In June, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 arrives, and hearing it in a space of this acoustic richness, is something close to a physical experience. The choral finale, the Ode to Joy, will be familiar to many, yet in a hall such as this it reasserts itself as something radical and alive, as though heard for the very first time.

Caravaggio (Ballet), 20–21 June & 23–26 June

Following this is perhaps the most intriguing offering of the season: Caravaggio, a new ballet that takes the baroque painter's turbulent life and genius as its subject. It is a bold proposition – to translate into movement an artist whose work was defined by shadow and light, violence, and a visceral command of human emotion. What unfolds on stage is as arresting as the paintings that inspired it.

Teatro Massimo is a place where the arts are performed, debated, and kept vividly alive. A monument to Palermo's past, yes, but equally a reflection of the city's present.

This summer, Villa Igiea invites its guests to take their seats within this storied auditorium and find themselves at the beating heart of Sicilian cultural life.