The Festival Toscanini 2024 and the Wagnerian enchantment under the stars of Piazza Duomo

Renewing the summer appointment with the Festival Toscanini, which in its 3rd Edition from June 4th to July 11th, 2024, presents a rich calendar of concerts, meetings and events in different locations throughout the city, paying homage to the Maestro and the authors he favored, with a particular focus on the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Among the performers, young winners of prestigious international competitions and internationally renowned musicians such as the prestigious baton of Kent Nagano who will conduct the “Concerto per la Città di Parma” to close the Festival on July 11th, 2024, under the stars of Piazza Duomo.

The concert on July 11th, “Concerto per la Città di Parma,” now a tradition, will be an authentic “Gala Wagner” entirely dedicated to the music of the great German opera composer.

“… On stage, one of the most admired interpreters of our time, the American conductor Kent Nagano, who will offer the audience a program inspired by the legendary Toscanini concerts, which remain in the history of Wagnerian interpretation of the last century: in addition to the Wesendonck-Lieder, also Tannhäuser Overture and Venusberg Music, Parsifal Good Friday Spell, Tristan und Isolde Prelude and Isolde’s Death, and from Die Walküre the famous Ride of the Valkyries.” (Fondazione Arturo Toscanini).

It will be a “Formidable enchantment” and “a heartfelt tribute to Toscanini echt wagnerish or “authentically Wagnerian.” Because Wagner is the author who bewitches him already in 1884 when, moved to tears, he listens to him for the first time at the Teatro Regio in Parma. I was overwhelmed by magical, supernatural feelings: the celestial harmonies revealed to me a new world… It is a testimony to Toscanini’s genius that he was a coveted guest in Bayreuth until politics and principles prevented him from returning. By performing all of Wagner on April 4th, 1954, at Carnegie Hall in New York with the NBC Orchestra, he ends his very long career at 87 years old. The Gala Wagner takes inspiration from this program and from that of September 19th, 1952, the Maestro’s last appearance at Teatro alla Scala. In Toscanini’s interpretations of Wagner, there is clarity of thought, dramatic tension, and they give the perfect perception of his enchanted sound world.” (Fondazione Arturo Toscanini).

Discover our dedicated package that will allow you not only to attend the extraordinary concert on July 11th and the other musical events of the Festival Toscanini, but also to experience days in the iconic places of music in the city and province, Toscanini’s and Verid’s sites, discovering and tasting the unmissable gastronomic products of the Parma Food Valley.

Discover the complete program here