The medieval town of Avenches is once again putting its Roman amphitheatre to use with the staging of Giuseppe Verdi's Nabucco. Eight performances are being held between July 8-24.

The medieval town of Avenches is once again putting its Roman amphitheatre to use with the staging of Giuseppe Verdi's Nabucco. Eight performances are being held between July 8-24.

Pictured above is a performance of Verdi's Aida, staged in 1995 - the festival's first year. The Avenches Opera Festival was made into an annual event, with more than 40,000 people attending last year's performances of Turandot and The Barber of Seville.

The organisers are also happy with sales for this year's performance, and have added benches to increase the capacity of the amphitheatre to 48,000 places. The success is being attributed to the choice of opera itself as well as the festival's increasing popularity with spectators from German-speaking Switzerland.

Swiss-Germans have realised they have a "small Verona" just an hour or two by car, said the president of the Aventicum Opera Association, Philippe Bosset. Avenches is located near Lake Murten/Morat, in French-speaking canton Vaud.

Next year, said Mr Bosset, Aida will be staged once again. And the performances planned for 2001 are William Tell by Rossini, and Rigoletto, to coincide with the centenary of Verdi's death.


Source: sda-ats

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