New Year’s Eve, concert date
The New Year’s Concert is an event of great charm and beauty, and has become an unmissable event thanks to the traditional Vienna Concert, held since 1939 in the beautiful Goldener Saal of the Musikverein in Vienna.
On the occasion of the New Year, however, the tradition of a celebration of music has been strengthened over the years in Italy, where the New Year’s Concert of the Teatro La Fenice of Venice was born, and the institution of a great concert of popular music in all the cities and towns of Italy, at the turn of the stroke of midnight.
New Year’s Concert at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice
The event, established in 2004 thanks to an idea by Anna Elena Averardi, takes place on January 1 at the prestigious Venetian theater, with an extraordinary success.
The concert, which closes a series of five concerts held between 28 and 31 December, is broadcast live on Eurovision by Rai 1 from 12.20 approximately, and from time to time dedicated to particular recurrences or events concerning the history of music and the history of Italy. The concerts usually include the performance of symphonies and arias of great operas, drawing essentially from the Italian symphonic and operatic repertoire. Every year, the orchestra and the chorus of the theatre take part in the concert, and Italian and international soloists invited from time to time. By established tradition, the conclusion of the concert is entrusted to the choir of Va, pensiero and Libiamo ne’ lieti calici by Giuseppe Verdi, taken from Nabucco and Traviata, respectively.
Attending the concert is also a wonderful opportunity to appreciate the beauty and elegance of the Teatro La Fenici, whose construction dates back to 1789.
Concerts in Italian cities
From Milan to Palermo, the tradition of the New Year’s concert in the square has become a solid and highly anticipated custom, which brings thousands of people, citizens and tourists, to live the beginning of the new year in the name of music.
A Milan The appointment with the New Year’s Concert is renewed in Piazza del Duomo, the reference place for the whole city, which is enlivened thanks to the alternation on stage of artists of great appeal, Italian and international.
A Rimini, the Italian capital of seaside tourism, within the New Year’s Eve “longest in the world”, there is a New Year’s Concert involving Italian and foreign musicians, in the frame of Piazzale Fellini and the Grand Hotel. The Rimini program of celebrations for the New Year before and after the concert, has scheduled hundreds of events and appointments, which transform the Adriatic town in the capital of the Italian New Year and, In addition, they offer a wonderful opportunity to discover it in all its most interesting aspects.
Events, shows and concerts, in fact, animate all the most fascinating and often little-known places of the historic center of Rimini, thanks to the opening of museums and exhibitions, and the organization of guided tours. Thus, places such as Piazza Malatesa or Castel Sismondo host musicians, Djs and entertainers ready to dance and have fun in a location of great historical and architectural appeal. Also the large Piazza Cavour turns into an open-air disco, surrounded by food & drink kiosks.
A Ferrara, at the stroke of midnight, the fire of Castello Estense is staged, while in the air the traditional fireworks burst and international music successes are spread. Later, however, at the Teatro Comunale, is held the New Year’s Concert, strong in a forty-year tradition.
At the stroke of midnight, at Bologna is held the “Rogo del Vecchione”, symbol of the old year, in Piazza Maggiore, followed by the concert and a busy program of events. Also Genoa organizes New Year’s Eve celebrations that begin on December 29th and take place in the central Piazza De Ferrari, where musicians and Djs alternate.
In Umbria, the town of Orvieto greets the New Year with a concert included in the program of Umbria Jazz Winter.
A Florence New Year’s Eve is celebrated in the streets, in twenty squares that host as many shows and music of all kinds and suitable for every type of audience. The splendid Piazza della Signoria hosts dance and acrobatics, Piazza San Lorenzo is dedicated to jazz.
In Naples, however, the New Year’s Concert is housed in the scenic setting of Piazza del Plebiscito, closed by the Royal Palace and the exedra of the Basilica of San Francesco di Paola. In addition to the square with the music of the author, however, the Neapolitan New Year also includes the staging of stages in Piazza Vittoria and at the picturesque Borgo Marinari, where the appointment is reserved for dance music, and then fireworks fired by Castel dell’Ovo.
Cover Image: raiplay