Between June and August 2026 two musical initiatives mark the summer cultural programming between Tuscany and Marche, offering different organizational models and repertoires. On the one hand, the Cacciaconti Music Festival, a chamber music festival spread among the villages of the Val d’Orcia and Val di Chiana, debuts; on the other, the 62nd edition of the Macerata Opera Festival, a well-established event dedicated to the opera repertoire, returns to the Sferisterio. The two projects, though distinct in setting and size, share the presence of international performers and the intent to enhance the relationship between music and the historical context of the places that host them.
The Cacciaconti Music Festival debuts with a second edition divided into two distinct moments: June 19-25 in the territory of Trequanda, in the province of Siena, and August 29-31 in Radicofani. The artistic direction is entrusted to violinist Steven Slade and U.S. violinist Ariana Kim. The project is a collaboration between Milano Classica, Slade himself, a resident of Val d’Orcia, and Ariana Kim. The initiative is proposed as a widespread festival that ideally recalls the tradition of cultural and artistic cenacles that characterized the social life of the Tuscan countryside and villages from the Middle Ages to the contemporary age. The name of the festival refers to the Cacciaconti family, which has held sway over the lands covered by the festival since the 9th century and has left its mark on local memory through historical and legendary figures such as the Blessed Bonizzella and Ghino di Tacco. The festival takes place in historic places in the area, medieval parish churches, churches and historic gardens located between the Val di Chiana and Val d’Orcia, which are often little known to the general public. The stated aim is to offer concerts in contexts characterized by a collected dimension and a strong connection with the surrounding landscape, outside the most popular tourist circuits.
The first part of the festival, scheduled for June 19-25, will take place in the territory of Trequanda and will be devoted mainly to the repertoire between the 18th and 20th centuries. The concerts will be held in the Medieval Wall Park, the Church of Saints Peter and Andrew and the Pieve di Santo Stefano a Cennano, located among the olive groves of Castelmuzio. The program features artists and ensembles of international prominence, including Ariana Kim herself, pianists Roberto Prosseda and Alexander Lonquich, young pianist Maya Oganyan, French clarinetist Pierre Génisson, violinist Giuseppe Gibboni together with guitarist Carlotta Dalia, the Solisti di Fiesole, the Cremona Quartet, the Indaco Quartet, the Mozarteum Baroque group and Orchestra Milano Classica.
The opening of the festival, June 19 at Parco Pancirolli in Trequanda, will feature Orchestra Milano Classica conducted together with violinist Ariana Kim in a program dedicated to Felix Mendelssohn and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, with the German composer’s Symphony for Strings No. 10 and Violin Concerto in D minor and the Russian composer’s Serenade for Strings Op. 48. The next day, June 20, Roberto Prosseda will offer a piano recital at the Pieve di Santo Stefano in Cennano with music by Mozart, Mendelssohn and Chopin. On the same evening at Pancirolli Park, Giuseppe Gibboni and Carlotta Dalia will perform a program through such composers as Paganini, Tartini, Tárrega, Turina and Piazzolla.
On June 21, the musical day will consist of two dates at the same venue in Castelmuzio. In the morning the Solisti di Fiesole will perform pieces by Beethoven, Glinka, Shostakovich and Connesson, while in the afternoon the Cremona Quartet with Maya Oganyan will play Edvard Grieg’s Quartet in G minor and César Franck’s Quintet in F minor. On June 22, the Milano Classica Orchestra will return to Pancirolli Park with clarinetist Pierre Génisson for a program entitled Midnight in Paris, bringing together music by Satie, Françaix, Gershwin and Ravel. On June 23, in the Church of Saints Peter and Andrew, Ariana Kim, Roberto Prosseda and Pierre Génisson will be joined by the reciting voice of Cosimo Carovani in a program that includes works by Srul Irving Glick, Béla Bartók and Igor Stravinsky. On June 24 the festival will move to the Cacciaconti Castle in Trequanda, where the Indigo Quartet will perform pages by Haydn, Britten and Beethoven. The first artistic residency will conclude on June 25 with a piano recital by Alexander Lonquich dedicated to Claude Debussy and Ludwig van Beethoven.
The second part of the festival will take place Aug. 29-31 in Radicofani, a village in the Val d’Orcia dominated by the medieval fortress that was the refuge of Ghino di Tacco. Concerts will be held in the Church of San Pietro. This section will be devoted mainly to early music and will feature French violinist Amandine Beyer with the group Gli Incogniti. On Aug. 29 soprano Channa Malkin and guitarist Izhar Elias will perform with a program that includes seventeenth-century and early Baroque composers such as Domenico Obizzi, Girolamo Sanz, Baggio Marini, Kapsberger, José Marín and Santiago de Murcia. On Aug. 30, the Mozarteum Baroque group will hold a concert produced in collaboration with the Accademia Chigiana and featuring contralto Sara Mingardo. On Aug. 31, the festival will close with Gli Incogniti conducted by Amandine Beyer, who will offer a program dedicated to Georg Philipp Telemann and Georg Friedrich Händel.
Organizers define the festival as a Slow Festival, designed to encourage a prolonged stay of audiences and artists in the venues hosting the events, through informal encounters and moments of sharing outside the concerts. Tickets and subscriptions are scheduled to go on sale starting Jan. 26.
Also in the summer of 2026, between July 17 and August 9, the Macerata Opera Festival will also return, reaching its 62nd edition at the Sferisterio in Macerata. The program features three main operas, Nabucco, Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Il Trovatore, as well as an evening dedicated to Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana.
Opening the festival on July 17 will be a new production of Giuseppe Verdi ’s Nabucco directed by Belgian Paul-Émile Fourny and with Fabrizio Maria Carminati conducting the Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana. In the role of Abigaille will be engaged soprano Anastasia Bartoli, while the title role will be played by baritone Ariun Ganbataar. Completing the cast are Alberto Comes as Zaccaria, Alessandro Scotto di Luzio as Ishmael, Laura Verrecchia as Fenena and Alessia Camarin as Anna. Reruns are scheduled for July 26 and Aug. 1 and 9.
Starting July 18, however, the production of Gioachino Rossini ’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia signed in 2022 by director Daniele Menghini, with music direction by Gianluca Martinenghi, will return. The role of Figaro will be entrusted to Armenian baritone Grisha Martirosyan, winner of the Operalia competition and already featured on international stages such as Salzburg and the Royal Opera House in London. Alongside him Ruzil Gatin will play the Conte d’Almaviva, Raffaella Lupinacci will be Rosina, Marco Filippo Romano will take on the role of Bartolo and Riccardo Fassi that of Basilio. Giulia Mazzola as Berta and Valerio Morelli as Fiorello will also make their debuts at the Sferisterio. Performances are scheduled for July 18 and 24 and August 2 and 8.
A revival of Giuseppe Verdi ’s Il Trovatore will begin on July 19, directed by Francisco Negrin and conducted by maestro Dmitri Jurowski. The cast includes Piero Pretti as Manrico, Franco Vassallo as Conte di Luna, Marche soprano Marta Torbidoni as Leonora and mezzo-soprano Sofia Petrovich as Azucena. Performances are scheduled for July 19, 25 and 31.
At the heart of the festival, on Aug. 7, the Sferisterio will host an evening dedicated to Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, conducted by Ramón Tebar with FORM-Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana and the Coro Lirico Marchigiano “Vincenzo Bellini,” prepared by Christian Starinieri. The solo parts will be entrusted to soprano Sara Blanch, tenor Ruzil Gatin and baritone Grisha Martirosyan.
Also for this edition, the Macerata Opera Festival confirms the new visual identity introduced in recent seasons. Promotional materials use artificial intelligence-processed images in which the protagonists of the operas are transformed into figures that recall the aesthetics of cartoons and video games. The stated goal is to approach new audiences and strengthen the presence of young spectators through initiatives such as the Sferisterio Scuola project and the Under30 Previews.
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| Two music festivals between Tuscany and Marche: from Cacciaconti Music Festival to Macerata Opera Festival |
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