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Poppea, Teti, Didone and Teodora are the four female protagonists of the operas that will be performed at the 43rd Monteverdi Festival in Cremona, entitled ‘Cantami, o Diva!’ which will take place from 7 to 21 June 2026.
For two intense weeks, the Lombard city, famous both for being the birthplace of the ‘divine Claudio’ and for its great tradition of violin making, will be filled with 17th-century music with more than thirty events taking place not only at the Ponchielli Theatre and the Arvedi Auditorium of the Violin Museum, but also in certain churches and in the courtyards of its historic palaces and in unusual or hidden places, such as workplaces, healthcare facilities and social welfare institutions.
As in recent years, Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine will open the Festival, entrusted this year to the Cappella Mediterranea conducted by Leonardo García-Alarcón, followed by a new staging of L’incoronazione di Poppea performed by Les Arts Florissants conducted by Paul Agnew. At the heart of the programme are two world premieres, Teodora imperatrice, a work by Mauro Montalbetti commissioned by the Festival, and the first performance in modern times of Francesco Cavalli’s Le nozze di Teti e Peleo, both performed by the Cremona Antiqua orchestra conducted by Antonio Greco.
The programme includes many other events, including Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas, which will be performed in concert form in Mantua by the ensemble La Fonte Musica conducted by Michele Pasotti. Also in Cremona, there will be concerts, lectures, listening guides, a study meeting on Monteverdi, and his madrigals and arias sung by La Lira d’Orfeo and Raffaele Pe in various venues around the city. The Festival will conclude with a recital by Carlo Vistoli accompanied by the Sezione Aurea ensemble conducted by Filippo Pantieri, entitled ‘Amor tiranno. Storia di amanti nell’Opera del Seicento’ (Love Tyrant. History of Lovers in 17th-Century Opera).
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