Looking for cultural gems throughout 2025? Florence’s Maggio Musicale Fiorentino theatre has just presented a year’s worth of operas, concerts, ballets and children’s events. Aimed at enticing quality audiences to the modern cultural space that opened in 2011 after moving from its historic premises in corso Italia, the city’s foremost theatre continues to stage the finest classic works with the same contemporary approach that has distinguished Maggio Musicale Fiorentino since its founding in 1933.
Opera at Teatro del Maggio
The 2025 opera season at Teatro del Maggio begins with Verdi’s Rigoletto on February 16, 18, 20 + 23 (conducted by Stefano Ranzani and directed by Davide Livermore), followed by Bellini’s Norma on March 9, 11, 14 + 16 (conducted by Michele Spotti and directed by Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier), which hasn’t been staged in Florence since 1978; Strauss’ Salome on April 16, 23 and 27 (conducted by Alexander Soddy and directed by Emma Dante); the satirical and dazzling Der Junge Lord by Hans Werner Henze (conducted by Markus Stenz and directed by Daniele Menghini) will be performed in the original language on May 25, 28 and 31; Verdi’s Aida will bring the pre-summer programming to a close under the baton of Zubin Mehta on June 19, 25, 28 and July 1. While the summer content is still to be announced, the operas return to the stage on September 16, 19, 21 + 23 with Bizet’s Les pêcheurs de perles (conducted by Jérèmie Roher and directed by Wim Wenders), ensued by Verdi’s Macbeth on October 12, 14, 17 + 19 (conducted by Alexander Soddy and directed by Mario Martone with scenography by Mimmo Paladino; Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia on November 9, 11, 14 + 16 (conducted by Francesco Iva Ciampa and directed by Andrea Bernard); and Johann Sebastian Bach’s Matthäus Passion on December 4, 6 + 7 (conducted by Kent Nagano and directed by Romeo Castellucci) with an unusual staging that will see the audience sit in the backstage area. The 2025 opera season culminates with Puccini’s La bohème conducted by Diego Ceretta and directed by Bruno Ravella on December 20, 21, 23, 28, 30 + 31 as well as January 2 + 4.
Ballet
January 2025 will open with two ballet performances by Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo: Roméo et Juliette on January 10 and Lac, based on Swan Lake, on January 16.
Concerts
27 concerts make up the music season at Teatro del Maggio, starting on January 3, 4 + 5 with family-friendly Fantasia Live in Concert based on two Walt Disney films that sees cartoons projected onto a screen while music is performed by the resident orchestra. The long concert season moves in parallel with the opera performances, bringing important names such as Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Daniele Gatti, Antonio Pappano with the London Symphony Orchestra, Kent Nagano, Michele Mariotti, Dame Jane Glover, Marc Minkowski, Henrik Nánási, Min Chung, Cornelius Meister, Alexander Soddy, Timur Zangiev, Thomas Guggeis, Alejo Pérez, Bertie Baigent and Bar Avni to the Florentine stage.
