On 25 and 26 August, Fondazione Arena brings Zorba the Greek back to Verona, as part of the programme of the 103rd Arena di Verona Opera Festival

An annual event that comes around year after year. Zorba the Greek will also feature at the Roman Theatre of Verona during the summer of 2026. After the single sold-out performance of 2023, the double date of 2024 and the four performances in 2025, one of the most beloved ballets of all time is back, thanks to our collaboration with the Municipality of Verona. Theodorakis’ masterpiece will be staged on 25 and 26 August 2026 for the 103rd Arena di Verona Opera Festival. 

This is a success story that is renewed year after year and which began in August 1988, with the world premiere at the Arena di Verona. Zorba the Greek, then making its debut with the choreography of Lorca Massine and the music of Mikis Theodorakis, inflamed the Arena with its dances and hymn to life. The composer himself took the baton to conduct the Arena Orchestra and Chorus, while the dancing featured soloists of the calibre of Vladimir Vasiliev and Gheorghe Iancu, against a backdrop of sun-kissed mines and Greek villages of dazzling white. The success was overwhelming and replicated in 1990, this time immortalised by the cameras. Since then, Zorba has embarked on an international journey, visiting 35 different countries and reaching millions of live spectators, before returning to Verona in 2002 for a revival at the Teatro Filarmonico and at the Roman Theatre. And since 2023, 35 years after the world premiere, a new production has returned to Verona, replicating the sold-out evenings and countless requests for encores, which the casts have been all too happy to grant. Over the years, the principal dancers have come from all over the world to star in this spectacular show, including Igor Tsvirko, Julian MacKay, Virna Toppi, Denys Cherevychko, Davide Buffone, Eleana Andreoudi, Liudmila Konovalova, Gioacchino Starace and Davide Dato. They have all thrilled the audiences in the Roman Theatre together with the Fondazione Arena Corps de Ballet.

Tickets for the two 2026 dates go on sale today from the website www.arena.it, the Arena di Verona ticket offices and the Vivaticket network.

Mikis Theodorakis (1925-2021) was a composer and political, civil and cultural giant of contemporary Greece: imprisoned during the dictatorship of the colonels, he spent a long time as an outlaw, before becoming a politician and then a minister. A prolific creator of symphonies, songs, operas and ballets, he became famous by producing soundtracks for directors such as Cacoyannis, Litvak, Powell, Costa-Gavras and Lumet. His Zorba in Verona was also a symbol of a new era associated with the fall of the Iron Curtain. Even today, this two-act ballet, adapted from the novel by Nikos Kazantzakis, represents a hymn to life, discovering one’s other self, overcoming grief and inner strength. In developing the themes of the soundtrack written for the 1964 film of the same name starring Anthony Quinn and Irene Papas, Theodorakis created an entirely new ballet that was choreographed by Lorca Massine, who also supervised the new production that has conquered international audiences at the Roman Theatre of Verona since 2023.

Zorba the Greek is part of the rich calendar of the 103rd Arena di Verona Opera Festival, which will enrapture the Amphitheatre with 52 magnificent evenings of opera, concerts and dance between 12 June and 12 September 2026.