SARONNO INTERNATIONAL

From May 2-5, 2024, the Saronno stage named after the famous soprano Giuditta Pasta will host the third edition of the International Opera Singing Competition dedicated to her.

After the great success of the II edition that registered more than 130 entries from all over the world and ten months after the 2023 edition held in the district of Kumamoto in Japan, the Giuditta Pasta Cultural Foundation, with the support of the City of Saronno, opens its doors to the II edition of the Giuditta Pasta International Opera Singing Competition, a valuable opportunity of international scope dedicated to young talents of bel canto, from all over the world.

Registration is open and will end on April 29.

The Competition, whose Artistic Direction is entrusted to M° Maurizio Moretta, aims to promote high musical training, to support and launch the careers of the winners both through scholarships (the total prize money is €8,000) and through concerts and opera productions for important theaters around the world, with a view also to consolidating the link with Kumamoto City Opera.

Giuditta Pasta and Saronno have a relationship rooted in 1797, the year of her birth in this very city. The city theater was named after her in 1990 and the International Opera Singing Competition in 2019; in 2020 the administration inaugurated a museum itinerary containing the more than six hundred works of the Giorgio Cavallari collection. Giuditta Pasta trod stages all over the world, and for her Donizetti wrote Anna Bolena, Coccia the Maria Stuarda, and Pacini the Niobe, while Bellini wrote La Sonnambula and Norma, of which she was an unsurpassed interpreter for dramatic power. To name the International Opera Singing Competition after her is meant to be an inspiration and example for all those who dream of enchanting audiences around the world with “bel canto.”

The International Opera Competition named after Giuditta Pasta was born as a bet on the territory, from the ambitious idea of combining cultural-artistic purposes with the creation and development of the image of the City of Saronno, which was the birthplace of this great opera performer, as well as providing the city with the opportunity to characterize itself as a cultural-international hub on our territory.