Sicily is consecrated as the world epicenter of myth, beauty and ethical commitment thanks to the extraordinary ability and iron determination of the Sicilian Lyrical Choir, guided by the vision and tenacity of Francesco Costa and Alberto Munafò. This monumental artistic undertaking comes after the historic record of over 70,000 attendances and accompanies the eighth edition of the Opera Festival of the Stone Theaters 2026 – officially included in the prestigious calendar of events of great tourist attraction in the Sicilian Region – towards its most ambitious season, guided by the powerful claim “Caring Eternity”.
The curtain will rise on Sunday 12 July at 5.30 pm in the incomparable setting of the Greek Theater of Monte Jato with the ritual-event “LU SCRUSCIU DI L’ANIMA: a cradle among the stones”, a lacerating beat of pure civil memory thirty years after the sacrifice of little Giuseppe Di Matteo. This inauguration transcends the show to become a singing wound, a poetic rebellion and a traveling shrine, where the thousand-year-old auditorium is transformed into an agora of conscience and the harshness of a land once violated by pain today becomes the stage of a rebirth that pierces the silence of the past. A redemption entrusted to a musical program entirely composed of Sicilian authors, from the classic Giuseppe Mulè to the contemporary mysticism of Franco Battiato. Giving body and soul to this heartbreaking hymn of beauty will be the most iconic faces of island and national music such as Bellamorea, Rita Botto, I Beddi, Maria Francesca Mazzara, Etta Scollo and Mario Venuti, supported by the Sicilian Lyrical Choir and the resident Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Francesco Costa, with Elvira Terranova conducting. A profound emotional journey, tense between indignation and tenderness, which will culminate in the poignant and painful performance of a lullaby in the Sicilian language: an ancestral song conceived to rise up to the sky and eternally cradle the memory and broken innocence of the “little knight”, returning him to the protective embrace of the millenary stones.
From this secular altar of memory, an immense program will unfold with over forty events until September, whose operatic heart will pulsate in the new and visionary production of Giuseppe Verdi’s “Nabucco” signed by director Salvo Dolce, which will debut on 18 July at the Greek Theater of Syracuse, then illuminate the Greek Theater of Tindari on 4 August and triumph on 7 August at the Ancient Theater of Taormina with an international cast led by historic debut of Elena Mosuc alongside Badral Chuluumbaatar.
The tension towards the infinite will then become visual and sensorial matter with the first ever performance in Sicily of “Mozart’s Requiem: The Opera of Fire”, a total staging where the polyphonic architecture will merge with the movements of the corps de ballet and with live flames on stage, lighting up the Court of Palazzo Platamone in Catania on 24 July, the Andromeda Theater in Santo Stefano Quisquina on 27 July, the Teatro dell’Efebo in Agrigento on August 23rd and the Temple of Hera in Selinunte at sunset on August 21st.
Great music will then marry the epic of cinema through the homage to Ennio Morricone on 19 August in Taormina, celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of the film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and the forty of The Mission, while the symphonic tour “Zimmer Tribute: Oscar Sounds” will make the stones of Syracuse vibrate on 31 July, of the Teatro di Verdura in Palermo on 1 August, of Tindari on 12 August and Taormina on 18 August, then giving way to the choral minimalism of “Elements of Light” dedicated to Ludovico Einaudi on 20 August in Taormina.
The spiritual soul of the season will also celebrate the eightieth anniversary of the birth of Franco Battiato in the recital “The Dawn Inside the Eternal” among the historical ruins of Morgantina on 26 July, Palazzolo Acreide on 2 August, Maletto on 8 August, the Argimusco Plateau on 10 August, Agrigento on 27 August, the Jesuit Cloister in Mazara del Vallo on 28 August and Selinunte on August 29th.
The deep identity bond with the territory will be sealed by the extraordinary voice of Rita Botto in “Stranizza d’Amuri” in Adrano on 6 August, in Leonforte on 11 August, in Priolo Gargallo on 16 August and in Catania on 19 September, and by the project “La Voce del Silenzio / Echi di Mito” with Lorenzo Licitra in Canicattini Bagni on 9 August.
Completing this spectacular mosaic will be the “Sulle Ali del Belcanto” gala in Gela on 19 July, “Sinfonie al Tramonto” in Avola on 30 July, the Lirici Galas in Ventimiglia di Sicilia on 5 August and in Tortorici on 24 August, the repeat of “Love Morricone” in Mazara del Vallo on 25 August, the “Dalla Tribute” with Pierdavide Carone in Nicolosi on 22 August, the “Canticle of the Sun” in Ragalna on 26 August, “La Terra Trema” in Palagonia on 10 September, until the monumental closing with “Apocalypse of Beauty” on 12 September and Mascagni’s “Cavalleria Rusticana” at the Teatro Greco Romano in Catania on 18 September.
An event with such a wide scope that it crosses the borders of the island with the prestigious extra-moenia stages of “Love Morricone” at the Roman Theater of Gubbio on 13 August, at the Roman Theater of Spoleto on 14 August and in Valletta in Malta on 25 September.