12-19 May 2006. Inaugurating the 69th edition of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino festival, conducted by Zubin Mehta, directed by Luca Ronconi, with Ruggero Raimondi, Manuel Lanza and Daniil Shtoda.

Renato Palumbo will conduct and Elijah Moshinsky will direct.

In Florence, the 69th Maggio Musicale Fiorentino will present Falstaff by Giuseppe Verdi (12-19 May). It will be the only opera on the programme in May due to the drastic (and very sad) state funding cuts for opera houses. But the only production of the season looks very promising thanks to some important names: Zubin Mehta will conduct, Luca Ronconi will direct, and among a group of good singers will be Ruggero Raimondi, Barbara Frittoli and Bernadette Manca di Nissa. The production may well compete with (if not surpass) the Falstaff of 23 years ago, which the Florentines still remember with emotion and which benefited from the charismatic presence of the great Carlo Maria Giulini, impeccable in his conducting and all-consuming in his interpretations, as well as a group of excellent singers that included Renato Bruson as an old, melancholic Falstaff still noble in his movements and song.

Paolo Di Nicola