On the 18th April on the initiative of the Foundation of Arena di Verona with the support of the Embassy of Italy in Zagreb and cooperation with the Italian-Croatian Chamber of Commerce and Veneto – the land of Venice, an event under the name 100 times the first time that celebrates centenary of Opera in Arena di Verona, took place.
People gathered in the temple of Croatian culture – Croatian National Theatre at least for the moment had the opportunity to travel to Italy and taste the irresistible Italian atmosphere in a few-hours-journey that guided them from the past throughout the future while listening about all the activities of the Opera Festival that will be happening in the historic ambient of Arena di Verona from June to September. Iva Hraste Sočo, intendent of HNK and Pierfracescco Sacco, the Italian Ambassador, expressed a warm welcome to everyone, after which Andrea Perkov, the General Director of the CCIC, and Stefano Trespidi, Italian opera stage director, held one-hour speech that explained main questions around organizing such a huge and important event. They referred to the history of the Arena di Verona, guidelines of his five years of artistic direction for a Festival, influence of being Veronese in his life and career, problems they face to make the festival as good as possible, and many more. Needless to say that all the guests enjoyed the most beautiful voices from Italy: tenor Gaston Rivera, baritone Youngjun Park, soprano Ruth Iniesta and pianist Federico Brunello who performed arias from the six most successful operas in Arena di Verona from the 1913 until now: Celeste Aida from Aida, Cissi d’arte from Tosca, Dio di Guida from Nabucco, Le fleur que tu m’avais jetee from Carmen, Un bel di vedremo from Madama Butterfly and finally Di Provenza, il mar, il soul… from La Traviata, after which the typical meal from region Veneto was served – risotto and tiramisu. Appropriately, later on that evening, in Croatian National Theater the opera Tosca was performed, and everyone interested could have enjoyed it.