Ravenna Festival 2026: The Full Programme Under the Sign of Saint Francis
There is a city in Italy that transforms every summer into an open-air stage, where classical music mingles with jazz, dance speaks to theatre, and art meets spirituality among thousand-year-old mosaics and squares steeped in history. That city is Ravenna, and its festival is one of the most eagerly awaited cultural events in Italy. The thirty-seventh edition of the Ravenna Festival 2026 carries a theme of extraordinary depth and relevance: the figure of Saint Francis of Assisi, in the eight-hundredth anniversary year of his death, under the patronage of the National Committee for the Celebrations. For anyone who wants to experience Ravenna not merely as a tourist destination but as an authentic cultural journey, this is an unmissable occasion.
The Ravenna Festival: A History of Cultural Excellence
Founded in 1990, the Ravenna Festival has become within a few decades one of the leading musical and cultural events in Europe. Every year it attracts internationally renowned artists, music lovers, tourists and curious visitors from all over the world, offering a programme that ranges from symphonic music and opera to contemporary dance, theatre, jazz and folk music. The city of Ravenna forms the natural backdrop to all of this: UNESCO World Heritage monuments, early Christian basilicas, the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, the Rocca Brancaleone — venues that become concert halls unlike any other in the world.
The thirty-seventh edition, presented on 7 February at the Teatro Alighieri before a packed audience, promises to be particularly rich. Over 120 performances are scheduled, with tens of thousands of spectators expected and a 2025 budget closed in balance thanks to the 80,000 attendees who supported the festival with their presence — figures that speak for themselves and confirm the vitality of an event that knows no crisis.
The 2026 Theme: “A Sun Was Born Into the World” — Saint Francis of Assisi
At the heart of the XXXVII edition stands a figure who crosses the centuries without losing any of his evocative power: Francis of Assisi. The Dantesque verse chosen as the guiding thread — “Nacque al mondo un sole” (“A sun was born into the world”, Paradiso, XI, 50) — is already an aesthetic and spiritual manifesto. Dante himself, moreover, is the ideal guest of the festival, his poetry once again lending voice and imagery to this extraordinary cultural project.
But why Francis, today? The festival’s official presentation offers an answer of rare clarity: “In a present dominated by capitalism, by the exploitation of natural and human resources, by growing intolerance and the logic of prevarication, Francis is the saint of a new humanism: he no longer belongs only to believers, but also to those who invoke peace, sustainability, dialogue between cultures and religions, and solidarity.” A universal message, both secular and spiritual, which the festival translates into music, theatre, dance and the spoken word.
Francis who speaks to animals, who meets the Sultan of Egypt, who writes the Canticle of the Creatures — the first poetic text in the Italian vernacular — and who chooses radical poverty as a form of absolute freedom. A complex, contradictory, utterly modern figure, capable of speaking to the heart of every spectator, believer or non-believer alike.
The Opening Concert: Anne-Sophie Mutter and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
The Festival opens on 21 May with an inaugural concert that is itself an event within an event. The extraordinary German violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter returns to Ravenna as soloist with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by maestro Vasily Petrenko. A date to mark in your diary well in advance, as tickets for Ravenna Festival opening concerts sell out quickly.
But there is more. On the same evening, or in the days immediately following, it will be Riccardo Muti who takes to the podium of the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini to conduct Paul Hindemith’s Nobilissima visione, the celebrated ballet on the life of Saint Francis. Muti will then hold a conversation with philosopher Massimo Cacciari on the influence the Poor Man of Assisi had on Dante and Giotto — two giants of Italian culture who drew decisive inspiration from the saint. A dialogue between music, philosophy and art history that one rarely has the chance to hear live at this level of quality and depth.
Riccardo Muti and the “Cantare amantis est” Project
Maestro Muti will also take centre stage on 1 and 2 June with the second edition of Cantare amantis est, a choral project that gathers voices from across Italy for two intense days of open masterclasses, rehearsals and a final performance. An initiative designed to bring the general public closer to choral music and to celebrate the country’s vocal heritage. Muti will return to conduct the Cherubini at the end of June and will lead The Philharmonic Brass in July.
The Rocca Brancaleone Reopens: Jazz, Cinema and Great Summer Nights
One of the most eagerly awaited pieces of news for Ravenna residents and festival enthusiasts is the return of performances to the Rocca Brancaleone. The historic fifteenth-century Venetian fortress, after years of restoration and redevelopment, finally reopens its doors to the public and to the festival. Mayor Alessandro Barattoni described this moment as a genuine gift to the city and its cultural community.
The Rocca will host evenings of great allure, including world-class jazz concerts featuring Stefano Bollani All Stars and the legendary American guitarist Pat Metheny. But not only live music: the fortress will also provide the setting for Fantasia in Concert — Live to Film, one of the most beloved events for audiences of all ages, in which a live orchestra accompanies the iconic Disney animated masterpiece in real time.
The Franciscan Programme: Theatre, Early Music and Contemporary Performance
The theme of Saint Francis runs through the entire programme with a richness and variety that is truly surprising. Among the most compelling events is the world premiere of “Il Santo folle” (The Holy Fool), a music-theatre work written by Guido Barbieri on the historic encounter between Francis and the Sultan of Egypt, Malek al-Kamil, with music by composer Marcello Fera. A little-known but extraordinary episode in the saint’s life: in 1219, in the midst of the Crusades, Francis crossed enemy lines to speak of peace with the Sultan.
The Ensemble Micrologus, specialists in medieval music, presents a sound reconstruction of the Canticle of the Creatures — the Franciscan poetic masterpiece — using period instruments and historically informed performance practices. An experience that transports the listener to the heart of thirteenth-century Italy. The double bill Da Greccio al presepe napoletano is a tribute to Roberto De Simone and the tradition of the nativity scene as a form of popular and spiritual art.
Particularly evocative is Opera da quartiere: Francesco e il lupo (Francis and the Wolf), conceived to be performed directly in the neighbourhoods of Ravenna, bringing culture to the streets and squares of everyday city life — a profoundly Franciscan gesture, one might say. Alongside this, OperaPaese per Ravenna by Giorgio Battistelli brings local craftspeople to the stage, celebrating manual work as a form of dignity and creativity.
Historian Franco Cardini and the Audiovisual Performance
The medievalist Franco Cardini, one of Italy’s foremost experts on Saint Francis and the Crusades, will deliver a lectio magistralis alongside the early music ensemble laReverdie. The Franciscan journey is completed by the audiovisual performance Nessun cielo è senza luce (No Sky Is Without Light), an installation of great visual and sonic power.
Dance, Theatre and Literature: The Complete Artistic Programme
The Ravenna Festival has never been only about music. The dance programme brings three high-impact productions to the stage: Murmuration Level 2 by choreographer Sadeck Berrabah; Infinite Approach by the acrobatic artist Yoann Bourgeois — known for his gravity-defying installations that sit between physics and poetry — and the Sergio Bernal Dance Company with two works, Rango and the iconic Bolero by Ravel.
The theatre programme offers a season of exceptional quality: Sophocles’ Antigone in a new version by Marco Martinelli, the internationally acclaimed Ravenna-born director; Storia del nuovo cognome (The Story of the New Surname) by Fanny & Alexander, based on Elena Ferrante’s celebrated novel; and Viaggio in Occidente (Journey to the West) by the Grande Teatro di Lido Adriano. The collaboration with Pompeii also continues, with a new staging of Euripides’ Bacchae directed by Micha van Hoecke.
Among the more intimate and literary highlights, a tribute to Allegra Byron — the illegitimate daughter of the Romantic poet Lord Byron, who lived and died in Ravenna — performed by Elena Bucci and Paolo Baioni at the Byron and Risorgimento Museums. And then there is Luṣ, a performance in Romagnol dialect by Ermanna Montanari, with text by Nevio Spadoni, music by Luigi Ceccarelli and double bass by Daniele Roccato.
The Festival’s International Guests
The list of guests expected through 11 July reads like a catalogue of excellence: conductor Kent Nagano, composer Nicola Piovani with actor Toni Servillo, pianist Filippo Gorini and violinist Giovanna Baviera in residence, the Münchener Kammerorchester with Enrico Onofri and Arsenii Moon, young Campanian violinist Giuseppe Gibboni, American bassist Nik West, DJ and producer Jeff Mills, Portuguese singer Dulce Pontes, the legendary American vocal ensemble The Chanticleer, and also Ambra Angiolini, Emma Nolde, psychoanalyst and essayist Massimo Recalcati and journalist Fabio Canino.
The Mausoleum of Theodoric: 1,500 Years of History
The year 2026 marks the 1,500th anniversary of the death of Theodoric the Great, the Ostrogothic king who made Ravenna one of the most splendid capitals of the late antique West. The Festival commemorates this anniversary with a lectio by art historian Jacopo Veneziani, held directly at the Mausoleum of Theodoric — the funerary monument the barbarian king had built for himself on the outskirts of Ravenna. An appointment that transforms a visit to a UNESCO site into a living, contemporary cultural experience.
Romagna in Fiore and the Autumn Trilogy: The Festival Beyond Summer
The Ravenna Festival does not end with the summer months. Two much-loved programming segments extend the calendar well beyond July. Romagna in fiore (Romagna in Bloom) returns from 1 to 24 May, with four weekends of open-air concerts in green spaces across Romagna, in an eco-sustainable and distributed format that brings music to villages, gardens and parks throughout the region. A wonderful way to discover the Romagnol countryside by combining nature, culture and music.
In autumn, the Autumn Trilogy — this year entitled Mozart 1791 — takes place at the Teatro Alighieri from 13 to 17 November, devoted to the final year in the life of the Salzburg genius: the year of The Magic Flute, the unfinished Requiem and a creativity that burned with extraordinary intensity until the very last day.
How to Plan Your Visit to Ravenna During the Festival
Ravenna during the festival is a magical city, but also a very busy one, especially on June and July weekends. For those who want to make the most of this experience, a little practical planning goes a long way. Tickets for the most sought-after events — concerts by Muti, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Pat Metheny — should be purchased weeks or even months in advance via the official Ravenna Festival website. Many theatre, dance and chamber music performances, however, retain availability until just a few days before.
Ravenna is a human-scale city, perfectly walkable or cyclable, with all its main UNESCO monuments concentrated within a few square kilometres. A guided tour of the early Christian mosaics before an evening concert is an experience that stays with you forever: the golden mosaics of Galla Placidia or Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, seen at sunset before a live performance, is something that defies easy description.
If you want to experience Ravenna and its Festival through fresh eyes, guided by someone who knows every corner of this extraordinary city, I am here to show you the way. Contact me to arrange a tailor-made tour that combines the great mosaic art, the thousand-year history of the former capital of the Western Roman Empire and the magic of the festival.
Conclusion: Ravenna Festival 2026, an Experience to Live at Least Once in a Lifetime
The Ravenna Festival 2026 is much more than a music festival: it is a journey into the soul of Europe, a dialogue between past and present, an invitation to pause and ask — as Francis of Assisi did eight hundred years ago — what truly matters. In a city that carries in its name and its mosaics the memory of empire and the promise of light, this festival is the perfect occasion to discover Ravenna in all its depth. Mark the dates, book your tickets, and come and discover why this small Romagnol city is, every summer, at the centre of the world.
Discover Ravenna with an Exceptional Tour Guide
Ravenna is one of those cities you can visit a thousand times and always find something new. Its early Christian mosaics, among the most extraordinary UNESCO World Heritage sites in existence, conceal symbols, stories and secrets that only an expert eye knows how to reveal. Walking through the naves of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo or pausing in the golden silence of the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia becomes a profoundly different experience when someone is there to tell you the context, the characters, the iconographic choices that have endured through fifteen centuries of history.
I am Cinzia Tittarelli, a licensed tour guide, and I have been accompanying visitors, groups and enthusiasts on their discovery of Ravenna for years. I know every corner of this city: the most famous basilicas and the less-visited ones, the forgotten palaces, the streets where Byron walked at night, the markets, the historic taverns, the viewpoints you will not find in any printed guidebook.
A Tailor-Made Tour, Designed for You
Whether you are planning a visit for the Ravenna Festival or simply want to explore the city at your own pace and with genuine curiosity, I can build a personalised itinerary that matches your needs: a morning among the mosaics before an evening concert, a thematic tour on Dante or Theodoric, a visit designed with younger visitors in mind, or a slow and narrative journey for those who want to truly feel Ravenna rather than simply see it.
I work with private groups, families, schools, companies and cultural associations. I offer tours in Italian and in English, with the option of combined itineraries that extend beyond the historic city to the surrounding territory: the pine forests, the Po Delta, the villages of the Romagnol hinterland.
Why Choose a Local Guide
In an age when information is available everywhere, what makes the difference is human connection and hands-on expertise. A local guide does not read you a caption: they tell you a story. They make you look up at the right moment. They take you where tourists never reach. They explain why Ravenna, a city of just 160,000 inhabitants, changed the course of Western history three times over. This is what you can expect from a tour with me.
How to Book Your Guided Tour of Ravenna
Reach me through the contact form on this website, or write to me directly by email or WhatsApp. I will be happy to reply within 24 hours to work out together the date, time, duration and itinerary of your tour. For festival periods I strongly recommend booking well in advance: availability on June and July weekends fills up fast.
Ravenna Is Waiting for You — and I Am Ready to Show It to You
There is no better way to experience the Ravenna Festival 2026 than to arrive in the city already knowing where to look, what to seek out and which stories to carry home. Let Muti’s music and the silence of the mosaics speak to one another in your memory, as they have done for centuries in this unique city. Book your guided tour and turn a trip into an experience you will never forget.
