Writer and storyteller Alessandro Baricco will guide audiences through a bold new reinterpretation of Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata with Una Traviata da cortile, a live narration and music performance that over the coming months will bring opera outside traditional theatres and transform it into a collective, immersive and popular experience.

With musical direction by Enrico Melozzi, creative direction and casting by Gloria Campaner, the project is a new production by Alessandro Baricco, Domenico Procacci and IMARTS – International Music & Arts.

Conceived for open-air spaces and courtyards, the staging deliberately breaks away from operatic convention: there is no longer a separation between stage and audience, and spectators become an integral part of the story itself. Audiences move through the action, toast and sing alongside the performers, experiencing Violetta’s story as if inside a village celebration, suspended between music, storytelling and collective participation.

The result is an entirely new format, somewhere between a public square concert, narrative theatre and a communal ritual.

Verdi’s opera is brought back to its most popular roots: music returning to resonate among people, entrusted not to a large symphony orchestra but to the Duphol Big Band Orchestra and Chorus, an ensemble created especially for the project, blending a string quintet, a wind band (Orchestra di fiati del Cilento and ANBIMA FVG), the accordion of Mario Stefano Pietrodarchi, the mandolin of Raffaele La Ragione, the double bass of Paolo Borsarelli and a choir that changes from city to city.

At the center of the performance remain the crucial moments of Violetta Valéry’s story, interpreted by soprano Floriana Cicìo, alongside tenors Matteo Roma and Andrea Tanzillo alternating in the role of Alfredo, and baritone Franco Vassallo as Germont. Their performances are framed within a new narrative structure composed of four tableaux exploring love, conflict, humiliation and finally the death of the protagonist. Between these musical chapters, Baricco intervenes with his narration, restoring the deeply human and contemporary power of the story.

Una Traviata da cortile is a theatrical and musical experiment that seeks to return opera to its most vital and shared dimension, transforming it into an event that unfolds among people through music, storytelling and celebration. And when the performance ends, the story does not truly conclude: audiences are invited to stay, continuing to share the night through toasts, music and dancing, just as happens during traditional village festivities.

First announced dates

• May 27 & 28, 2026 – Antica Grancia Benedettina, Colorno (Parma), for Teatro Regio di Parma
  teatroregioparma.vivaticket.it
• June 20 & 21, 2026 – Courtyard of the University of Florence, Florence, for Maggio Musicale Fiorentino
  www.maggiofiorentino.com
• July 20, 2026 – Azienda Agricola Zorzettig for Mittelfest
  www.mittelfest.org
• August 5, 2026 – Castello di Titignano, Orvieto, for Umbria Green Festival
  ticketitalia.com
• September 26 & 27, 2026 – Courtyard of the Kimbo factories, Melito di Napoli
  Further information coming soon