Festival Verdi

Alzira is the one for collectors: it has been staged at the festival only once before, in 2002. Nabucodonosor (Nabucco, with "Va, pensiero") is the safe first opera. Both are played in the critical editions from the University of Chicago Press and Ricordi. Aida in Busseto is the curiosity: a grand opera squeezed into a small 19th-century theater, in a production Zeffirelli designed for exactly that stage. It also means few seats, so it is the one to book first.

• Gala Verdiano, October 10 at the Teatro Regio, conducted by James Conlon: music from Il Corsaro and Jérusalem, plus the overture to Carlos Gomes's Il Guarany.
• Fuoco di gioia, October 14: a benefit gala organized by the Club dei 27, the local Verdi fan club.
• Accademia Verdiana concert, October 21: the festival's young singers.
• Messa da Requiem, October 23, conducted by Daniele Rustioni with Eleonora Buratto, Ekaterina Semenchuk, Saimir Pirgu and Roberto Tagliavini.

The side series, Ramificazioni, is where the unusual venues are. Ingo Metzmacher conducts the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini in Wagner, Henze and Debussy at the Auditorium Paganini on October 4; the Quartetto Luigi Magnani plays Debussy and Dvořák in the Regio's Ridotto on October 7; and on October 15 Lucia Ronchetti's Zenobia Regina is performed in Italian and Arabic in the Teatro Farnese, the 1618 wooden theater inside the Pilotta. It is an uncommon chance to hear music in that room. Stockhausen's Mantra closes the series at the Auditorium del Carmine on October 22.

Buy from the Teatro Regio box office at Strada Garibaldi 16/a, by phone on +39 0521 203999 or by email at [email protected], or through the online sales linked from the Regio's website. For Aida in Busseto, ask the Regio box office how that performance is sold; the Aida open rehearsal was sold at Busseto's own theater box office.

What we could not do on September 29, 2026 was load the Regio's price table, so we are not printing per-sector prices we have not seen. Two things we did confirm:

• Open rehearsals cost €10 a seat, and they are the only ticketed opera dates before the festival opens on October 1: Aida's was in Busseto on September 10, Alzira's Under30 rehearsal on September 25 and its open rehearsal on September 28; Nabucodonosor's is on September 30 at 3:30 p.m. A quota goes on sale at the Regio box office from September 26, and these tickets cannot be booked or bought online. The Regio's young-audience page lists them as Under-30 rehearsals, so check eligibility when you buy.
• Package prices are not ticket prices. Travel agencies sell festival performances inside packages; one we checked listed Nabucodonosor at €520 per ticket as part of a tailor-made package. Compare with the box office before you pay that.

Our opera at the Regio: worth it? page explains which seats see the stage, and what the loggione is. If you cannot get a festival seat, a guided tour of the house is covered on the Teatro Regio page.

Verdi Off, now in its 11th edition, puts Verdi in the streets for free. The fixture to plan around is the Cucù Verdiano: every day at 1 p.m. from September 19 to October 25, conservatory students sing a Verdi aria from the arcade (the Fornici) of the Teatro Regio. In Busseto, soloists of the Accademia Verdiana sing from the town hall balcony every Sunday at noon (October 4, 11, 18 and 25). The rest of the program runs from children's workshops to concerts in San Giovanni Evangelista (Duruflé's Requiem on October 17 at 9 p.m.) and performances at the Museo Glauco Lombardi.

Combine it with our music walk for a free Verdi day in the city.

Busseto is about 42 km (26 miles) north-west of Parma, roughly 45 minutes by car. See our Busseto day trip for trains, buses and what to see before an evening Aida, from Verdi's birthplace at Roncole to Casa Barezzi.

On hotel prices we have no published data, and we will not make up a percentage. The practical warning is the calendar: the festival's last weekend (October 24–25) is followed on October 27–30 by Cibus Tec, a trade fair expecting 40,000 professional visitors at Fiere di Parma. If you want to stay on after the festival, book now. For areas, see where to stay; the Hotel Torino and Hotel Stendhal are a short walk from the Regio.