Letter from Verdi Country
Each autumn, thousands of music lovers flock to northern Italy to mark the birthday of composer Giuseppe Verdi. Taking a major role in the celebrations is Festival Verdi, an annual opera event which features an array of performances and productions. The festival, founded in the 1980s, stages works at various locales including the Teatro Regio di Parma, the Teatro Farnese (also in Parma), and the Teatro Verdi di Busseto. What makes the event, and indeed its surrounding area, so special is the extent to which the world of the composer remains largely intact.
The premiere stop for any opera lover is a trip to Le Roncole, a thirty-minute drive north of Parma. A stop off the highway leads one through gently rolling hills and meadows into the tiny village, with its charming inn where the composer was born in
