Indian Conductor Zubin Mehta Featured in the Fourth Edition of the Respighi Bologna Festival

Indian Conductor Zubin Mehta Featured in the Fourth Edition of the Respighi Bologna Festival

The initiative dedicated to one of the greatest Italian composers of the twentieth century returns to the city where he was born. A multidisciplinary and collective project, the Respighi Bologna Festival brings together leading cultural institutions in Bologna and across Italy to paint a multifaceted portrait of the composer and his era.

Now in its fourth edition, the Respighi Bologna Festival is the first resident festival dedicated to Ottorino Respighi, one of Italy’s most prominent twentieth-century composers, held in the city of his birth.  A multidisciplinary and collective project, the Respighi Bologna Festival brings together leading cultural institutions in Bologna and across Italy to paint a multifaceted portrait of the composer and his era. Since 2022, the festival has turned Bologna into a widespread stage, hosting concerts, conferences, lectures, film screenings, and discussions aimed not only at rediscovering Respighi’s work, but also that of his contemporaries—promoting the immense musical heritage and cultural vibrancy of early twentieth-century Italy. The project also reaffirms Bologna’s role as a UNESCO Creative City of Music, the only one of its kind in Italy and internationally recognized for the richness of its cultural offerings.

Once again under the patronage of the University of Bologna, the Festival will offer a rich and varied programme. It opens on Sunday, June 8, with the Respighi Bologna Festival launch concert in Piazza Maggiore at 9:30 PM, as the closing event of the Bologna Portici Festival, through which the City of Bologna celebrates its UNESCO-listed porticoes. The concert will also mark the official debut of the newly established Orchestra Fondazione Luciano Pavarotti, led by its Artistic Director Matteo Parmeggiani: a project dedicated to honoring the artistic and human legacy of Luciano Pavarotti. The evening will conclude with a special tribute to the great tenor from Emilia-Romagna, performed by exceptional guest Gianluca Terranova. The concert is free and open to the public.. A reserved section will be available for Musica Insieme subscribers, with reservations required by email or phone before June 6.

“Once again, the Univeristy of Bologna is pleased to support the Festival,” stated Rector Giovanni Molari, “an initiative that successfully merges innovation and tradition, offering a cultural programme of the highest quality. The dialogue between the arts, institutions, and the local community is at the heart of this project, which continues to grow with each edition. We are confident the public will recognize its value, as they have in the past.”

An unmissable highlight will be the opening concert on 21 September at 8:30 PM at Auditorium Manzoni, celebrating the nearly forty-year collaboration between Musica Insieme and the Teatro Comunale di Bologna. For the first time, the legendary Indian conductor Zubin Mehta will lead the Teatro Comunale di Bologna Orchestra, following an invitation from Maurizio Scardovi.

On 29 September, the festival presents "Pulcinella, all’improvviso!", a world premiere co-produced with the Teatro del Baraccano, offering a fresh take on Stravinsky’s masterpiece with a special focus on its Neapolitan origins, in celebration of the 25th centenary of the founding of Naples.

Then, on 13 October, in collaboration with the Musica Insieme 2025/26 concert season, the Beijing Symphony Orchestra, one of China’s foremost ensembles, will perform at Auditorium Manzoni, conducted by the great Maestro Muhai Tang, who has worked alongside Herbert von Karajan with the Berlin Philharmonic and led prestigious ensembles such as the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon and the San Francisco Symphony. This concert will commemorate 75 years of diplomatic relations between China and Italy.

Celebrating 70 years of musical partnership, renowned pianists Bruno Canino and Antonio Ballista will perform on 16 October, playing works from the Italian and French twentieth-century repertoire, including pieces by Casella, Malipiero, Ravel, Fauré, and Debussy. The concert will take place at Sala Bossi of the "Giovan Battista Martini" Conservatory, where Respighi himself once studied and graduated.

Further anniversaries will be honored, such as the 150th birthday of Guido Alberto Fano and the 130th of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, featured in a special concert on Wednesday, 21 October at the Oratorio di San Filippo Neri. Pianist Massimiliano Ferrati and the Ensemble Mark Rothko will perform Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s String Quartet No. 3, Casa al Dono, and Fano’s majestic Piano Quintet, which concludes with a solemn chorale—ending in a surprise appearance by a trumpet, performed by 18-year-old talent Andrea Ferrati.

The programme also includes talks, listening sessions, screenings, and a grand finale on 25 October, an original educational project involving students from Bologna’s "Giovan Battista Martini" Conservatory and the Academy of Fine Arts. Thanks to the collaboration with the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, this final event will feature a new staging of Respighi’s opera La bella dormente nel bosco at the Comunale Nouveau, with a matinée for schools and an evening performance. The cast includes the soloists, choir, and orchestra of the Conservatory, conducted by Matteo Parmeggiani and directed by Giovanni Dispenza. Bologna’s academic institutions will come together under the banner of the Respighi Bologna Festival to close the edition with this enchanting musical fairy tale. A production that looks to the future, engaging young people in the full creative process of an opera production—preparing them to be the artists and professionals of tomorrow.

The full programme and details are available on the Musica Insieme website