Ninth Symphony by Beethoven

The 104th Opera Season at the Arena di Verona opens with a grand tribute to Ludwig van Beethoven on his bicentennial.

The orchestra and the Chorus of the Arena di Verona, along with the most beautiful voices from around the world, will perform on June 11 in a symphonic concert featuring the monumental 9th Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven, offering the audience of the amphitheater an unforgettable evening, following previous sold-out performances.

The Symphony No. 9 in D minor for soloists, choir, and orchestra op. 125, a masterpiece that changed the course of music history, is the last of the symphonies composed by Ludwig van Beethoven, commissioned by the Philharmonic Society of London in 1817. The main drafting took place between 1822 and 1824, the date of completion of the autograph; Beethoven conceived the idea of writing two symphonies of unusual size and character, one purely instrumental, the other incorporating vocal elements. To these two projects was added a third, which brings unity and completion to the work: to set to music Friedrich Schiller's Ode to Joy. The political and intellectual freedom, the essence of Enlightenment Joy and a key concept of Schiller's ode, was indeed a theme very dear to Beethoven, who embraced those ideals infused with a secular religiosity and universalistic enthusiasm.

Performance: June 11 at 8:30 p.m.