About Us

Italian Opera Taormina Project

The Italian Opera Live Cultural Association was born in 2014 from the desire and passion to transmit our regional and national musical and artistic cultural heritage, envied us all over the world. The proven experience of the founding members of the institution in the artistic, theatrical, public relations and administrative fields has made every culturally interesting and innovative project and initiative possible. Particular attention was paid to regional folklore music and to the Italian Opera. The association has also carried out a growing collaboration with other ODV structures located in other parts of Italy and abroad in order to import and export an all-round musical and artistic culture. We often had guests from different parts of the world such as Cyprus, Spain, France, Germany, Israel, Switzerland, etc … All of the above mentioned has made it possible that today our Association employs professionals with proven experience in the artistic and theatrical fields both nationally and internationally, with its staff of professional opera singers, pianists, musicians and dancers. In the numerous concerts that we do during the year, we mainly use the collaboration of young Sicilian opera singers, acting as a “gym” for their continued artistic growth. The great results achieved by these artists make us particularly proud, as many of them have achieved great results: like the soprano Elisabetta Zizzo who has already debuted several roles at the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago and at the Arena di Verona, the tenor Valentino Buzza who debuted Nemorino at the Maggio Fiorentino Theater in Florence, the soprano Maria Bagalà winner of the international competition “Maria Caniglia 2016” and the “International Opera Competition of Spoleto”, the soprano Chiara Notarnicola winner of the Bologna Opera School where she several roles already debuted at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna, the soprano Ester Ventura who sang in honor of the Prince of Monaco, the tenor Angelo Villari who includes various roles at the Comunale of Cagliari, at the Opera of Rome, at the Teatro Maggio Fiorentino in Florence and in other prestigious gloomy places in the world etc …

Since 2014 and 2019, Italian Opera Live has organized 607 events with around 60,000 spectators.

The Italian Opera Live association has created and registered with SIAE a format called “Italian Opera” which was immediately created through the now famous “ITALIAN OPERA TAORMINA” Music Festival which reached its eighth edition in 2020.

The show “Italian Opera Taormina” is an unmissable timeless journey in the Italian Opera and which lasts approximately one hour and 30 minutes. The idea was to create a cheerful show aimed at anyone, new or passionate, unhinging the belief that opera is music for only a few … During the show the most famous arias and duets of the Italian lyric repertoire of international fame are represented. Italian Opera Taormina, in fact, accompanies the public on a magical journey through Mozart, Verdi, Puccini, Donizetti, Rossini, making use of the best lyrical voices on the national and international scene accompanied, in the hall, by equally virtuous pianists.

In 2016, another annual initiative was launched called “Taormina International Music Festival”, of which the famous soprano Katia Ricciarelli was the godmother of the inaugural evening together with other artists of great international level.

The following shows have been organized in the various editions:

Show “Nessun Dorma” with the extraordinary participation of the famous soprano Katia Ricciarelli
Show “Percussive Colors Duo” with Ruya Taner (Northern Cyprus) and Dince Ozer (Turkey)
Show “Musiche da Film” with il M° Palmiro Simonini and il M° Stefano Maffizzoni (artistic director of the Bibiena Theater in Mantova)
Show “Amanecer En Granada” with Jose e Francisco Cuenca (Spain)
Show “Trio Mediterraneo” with Carlos Emilio Lopez (Spain), Salvatore Cicero (Vittoria – RG) and Beatriz Balboa Ruiz (Spain)
Show “Viaggio da Vivaldi a Mascagni” with Laura Brioli (mezzosoprano), David Boldrini (piano)
Show “Viva l’Operetta” with Carmen Salamone (soprano), Antonio Costa (tenor), Antonio Gennaro (piano)
Show “Napoli – Venezia” with Sabrina Gasparini (voice), Gen Llukaci (violin), Dragan Babic (piano)
Show “Le donne di Puccini” with Silvia Di Falco (soprano), Elisabetta Zizzo (soprano), Diana Nocchiero (piano)
Show “Canzoni, Opera e Zarzuela” Eugenia Boix (soprano), Anna Ferrer ( piano) – Spain
Show “Da Broadway al Tango” with Ester Ventura (soprano), Raffaele Bertolini (clarinet), Luca A.M. Colombo (piano)
Show “Duo barocco” with the duo on the piano Marco Schiavo and Sergio Marchegiani
Show “Guitar & Voice” with Pablo Lentini Riva (guitar) – France, Carla Basile (soprano)
Show “Gran Gala dell’Opera” with Elisabetta Zizzo (soprano), Angelo Villari (tenor, Graziano D’Urso (Baritone), Antonio Gennaro (piano)
Show “Viva l’Operetta” with Carmen Salamone (soprano), Antonio Costa (tenor), Antonio Gennaro (piano)
Show “Les Bouffes Napolitains” with ILARIA IAQUINTA Soprano – GIACOMO SERRA Piano
Show “Bravi, Bene…Bis!” with ROBERTO METRO Piano – ELVIRA FOTI Piano
Show “Sogno D’Or” with ELENA BAKANOVA Soprano – RAFFAELE MASCOLO Piano
Show “Romanticismo in Musica” with VERONICA CARDULLO Soprano – PIERRE-LAURENT BOUCHARLAT Piano
Show “Love Duets” with CARMEN SALAMONE Soprano – DAVIDE BENIGNO Tenor – ANTONIO GENNARO Piano
Show “Donne All’Opera” with MARIAGRAZIA TRINGALI Soprano – GIOVANNA SAVINO Flute – CINZIA BARTOLI Piano
Show “Una Notte all’Opera” with ELISABETTA ZIZZO Soprano – MARCO CIAMPI Piano

Over the years, the following have also been organized:

the “Concerto di Capodanno 2017” at the Theater “Vittoria Colonna” in Vittoria (RG)
the “Concerto di Natale 2017” at the Theater Trifiletti in Milazzo (ME),
a Gran Galà Lirico at the Theater “Don Bosco” in Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto (ME)
4 special “Italian Opera Taormina” themed concerts entitled: “Omaggio a Verdi”, “I tre tenori”, “Le donne di Puccini” e “Italian Film song”
the “Gran Galà dell’Opera” at the Theater “San Giorgio” in Taormina (ME) in December 2018;
“Sicily Revisited” with three Sicilian Artists: Laura Campisi, Alberto Fidone and Andrea Beneventano.
One of them, the artist Laura Campisi lives and works in New York (USA) and has been rewarded several times for her desire to export Sicilianity to the world. This show was conceived to create a union between Sicilian popular music and American jazz notes with its echoes of jazz from the most varied contaminations and the Sicilian dialect through the reinterpretation of popular pieces, lullabies and Sicilian nineteenth-century romances;
“FlamencOlè e Sanchez Trio”show created by the Sicilian guitarist Massimo Martines with several flamenco dancers, guitar, voice and percussion. Involvement and strong emotional charge in an explosion of rhythms, colors and emotions …;
“Frequenze Retrò” vocal gypsy jazz, italian music of the years ’40, ’50, ’60in a jezzistic key
The Crhoma Ensamble in “Note da Oscar”a show that recalls a journey into Italian auteur cinema through the soundtracks and videos of the great masterpieces for an unforgettable and engaging show, with 6 Sicilian musicians and 10 soundtracks.

In August 2014, the opera recital was also organized at the Castel of Milazzo “Omaggio all’Opera buffa”with the participation of the famous baritone Cristian Gravina (singer of the musical Nitre dame de Paris by Riccardo Cocciante), the soprano Silvia Di Falco and the pianist Antonio Gennaro, all famous Sicilian artists who thrilled the funny repertoire of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Italian the large audience present at the event.
In August 2015 another Recital entitled was organized “Quadri d’Opera” in the Atrium of the Carmine of the Municipality of Milazzo where they were represented, by a quartet (Tenor, Soprano and piano and narrator), four titles from the Italian Opera Repertoire “La Traviata”, “Madama Butterfly”, “La Bhoème”, “Turandot” in semi-stage form, with period costumes and projections.
In December 2015 we organized the “Concerto di Capodanno” at the Theater Trifiletti in Milazzo (Me), with the famous Sicilian tenor Angelo Villari, the soprano Silvia Di Falco, the pianist Antonio Gennaro and the string quartet Oblivio, representind the famous Italian and French opera repertoire, Italian music, and the classic Viennese pieces.

Furthermore, every year several shows are organized exclusively aimed at an audience of children and teenagers with the aim of accompanying the new generation in the wonderful world of music, fun and magic that only Italian opera can provide; and concerts entitled “Music Donors” made at some hospitals in Sicily.

In the recording business he also has the publication of a CD entitled “Italian Opera – Live in Taormina” with the extraordinary participation of the soprano and Artistic Director Silvia Di Falco recorded live in Taormina in 2015.