About us

The Opera Festival at the Arena di Verona was born on 10th August 1913, with the first performance of Aida commissioned by Veronese tenor Giovanni Zenatello and theatre impresario Ottone Rovato to commemorate the centenary of Giuseppe Verdi's birth. For over a hundred years (except for two brief interruptions during the great wars and the pandemic), every summer, the Roman amphitheatre is transformed into the world's largest open-air opera house.

The current organisational structure is the result of the reform enshrined in Law Decree no. 134 of 1998 and by D.L. 134 of 1998, which transformed the opera houses into private-law Foundations, giving rise to the current Fondazione Arena di Verona, and sanctioned the possibility of entry to private partners. The Fondazione's current Founding Members are the Italian State, the Ministry of Culture, the Veneto Region, the Municipality of Verona, the Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Crafts and Agriculture of Verona and Cattolica Assicurazioni. In the past, the Province of Verona, Fondazione Cariverona, the Banca Popolare di Verona and the Accademia Filarmonica di Verona.

The institutional purpose is to perform non-profit cultural activities of public utility, pursuing the dissemination of musical art and musical education for the general public.

The Arena di Verona wins on the Italian front when it comes to the digital world and social media, at the top of the Foundations in our country in the ranking of likes, followers, impressions, interactions and comments, and fourth worldwide in the overall ranking after such prestigious institutions as the Sydney Opera House, the Royal Opera House in London and the Metropolitan Opera House in New York: an achievement that definitely lives up to the hype of the city it represents in the world.

Social media and digital numbers (2025):

68,096,715 contacts reached on Youtube, Meta and Tiktok

190,573,008 video views on Youtube, Meta and Tiktok

124,406 hours of videos watched on socials