Scatola Sonora - International Festival of Opera and Music Theater

Alessandria | Musical

From 14 May 2026 to 3 October 2026

Dates

3 October 2026

Description

Scatola Sonora, the international festival of opera and small-scale musical theater, returns to Alessandria, reaching its twenty-ninth edition this year.

From May to October 2026, the historic setting of Palazzo Cuttica will host a program packed with innovation and cultural research, showcasing the Conservatory's young talents, as explained by the Festival's creator and curator, Luca Valentino, professor of stage performance theory and techniques.
Over twenty-nine editions, the "Scatola Sonora" festival has continued to evolve, shifting forms, tempos, and perspectives, without ever losing its core identity: that of a living laboratory, where musical theater questions itself, renews itself, and constantly challenges itself. This vitality is based, on the one hand, on the desire to experiment with ever-new languages and methods to bring opera closer to the present, opening it up to diverse and increasingly engaged audiences; on the other, on the educational vocation that has always inspired the project, making it a practical training ground for students of the Vivaldi Conservatory.

Professor Marco Santi, director of the Alessandria Conservatory, also emphasizes the educational opportunities the Festival offers students:
The 2026 edition of Scatola Sonora presents itself as a fascinating kaleidoscope combining diverse yet complementary aspects: the production of musical theater works involving our best students (singers, instrumentalists, teachers, and collaborators), projecting them into the professionalizing dimension that we hope will soon characterize their artistic careers.

The festival will open with Benjamin Britten's The Little Chimney Sweep, performed in the Cortile di Palazzo Cuttica (Via Parma, 1 - Alessandria) on May 14th, 15th (10:30 a.m. - performances for schools) and 16th (6:00 p.m. - performance for families).
The opera, part of the Enterriamo nella Casa della Musica project, is directed by Luca Valentino and conducted by Giovanni Battista Bergamo. A true manifesto of inclusive musical theater, the show will invite its young audience to participate, having the children perform four choruses written specifically by Britten and transforming the dramatic story of little Sem into a collective and highly topical reflection on the themes of child labor and solidarity.

The festival will then host the exhibition "All'Opera! Creative Encounters between the Vivaldi Conservatory and the Albertina Academy of Fine Arts," part of the broader INAR – Italian Network of Artistic Research and Art Education | World Expo 2026 project. The project has led to the creation of an international web platform and the collection of video and set design materials documenting the collaboration between the "A. Vivaldi" Conservatory of Alessandria and the Albertina Academy of Fine Arts in Turin. A selection of these materials will be presented in the exhibition organized in collaboration with ASM Costruire Insieme and the City of Alessandria, as part of Aperto per il Giro, during the Alessandria stage of the Giro d'Italia. The exhibition will open on May 22nd at 5:30 PM and will be open to the public at the Palazzo Cuttica Civic Museum (Via Parma, 1 - Alessandria) on May 22nd, 23rd, 24th, and 28th, 29th, 30th, and 31st, from 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM.

The event is part of the international project INAR – Italian Network of Artistic Research and Art Education | World Expo 2026, promoted by the NATIONAL RECOVERY AND RESILIENCE PLAN (PNRR) – NextGenerationEU, Mission 4, Component 1 “Strengthening the provision of education services: from nursery schools to university,” Investment 3.4 “Advanced university teaching and skills,” Sub-Investment T5 “Strategic partnerships/Initiatives to innovate the international dimension of the AFAM system.” This project is led by the Accademia Albertina of Turin.

Another event will be the repeat performance in Turin—Friday, May 29th at 8:00 PM at the Accademia Albertina (Scenography Festival – ARWE Piazza Teresa Noce 8, Turin)—of the lecture-performance "Le Femmine d'Italia - La seduzione femminile nel melodrama italiano," a production of the "A. Vivaldi" Conservatory in collaboration with the Academy itself.

This performance will be the final event of the project "Casta Diva: An International Research and Production Digital Platform on Women in Italian Musical Theatre," funded by the European Union (NextGenerationEU) with resources from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. Mission 4: Education and Research. Component 1: Strengthening the provision of educational services: from nursery schools to universities. A project led by the "A. Vivaldi" Conservatory.

The summer evenings of Thursday, June 18th and Friday, June 19th (9:00 pm) will bring opera back to the courtyard of Palazzo Cuttica with Nino Rota's I due timidi. The lyrical comedy, directed by Giovanni Battista Bergamo and directed by Luca Valentino, will use the courtyard's architectural space as its true protagonist, offering, with Rota's trademark elegance, a melancholic and ironic glimpse into postwar Italy, amidst popular songs and
daily gossip.

On Friday, June 26th at 8:00 pm, the festival returns to the Pittaluga Auditorium with the thesis concert "Princess Evolution," performed by Giada Bassino, Stefano Bolla, and Viden Spassov, a concert shared with the Vivaldi Jazz Fest.

The festival will conclude on Saturday, October 3rd at 4:15 pm (again at the Pittaluga Auditorium) with an event dedicated to Saint Francis, marking the 800th anniversary of his death. The concert narrating "San Francesco aulente fiore," performed by the Zebo Ensemble, will consist of six musical and iconographic scenes, combining philological rigor and medieval music to narrate the man's transformation from merchant to saint. The concert will open with readings organized in collaboration with the Alexandrian Society of Italian Studies.