Avant-garde opera, jazz and music, art exhibitions and guided tours: it is the eighth edition of the Festival of Sant’Efisio, a musical event organized by the Teatro Lirico, Cagliari. The festival began in 2001 around the celebration for Sant’Efisio, the most important and evocative religious procession in Sardinia that takes place each year on the 1st May, representing a moment in which religion and folklore merge in an extraordinary procession in traditional costume. This is the 352nd year of the procession.

The Festival of Sant’Efisio opens with the new production of The Legend of the Invisibile City of Kitez and the Maiden Fevronija, an opera in four acts with music by Nikolaj Rimskij-Korsakov, in a new staging by the Teatro Lirico, Caglairi, in co-production with the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. The opera will be performed on the 24th April (live on Rai Radio Tre) 26th, 27th, 29th 30th April, on the 2nd and 4th May. The Cagliari staging, is directed by the brilliant artist Eimuntus Nekrosius, the visionary Lithuanian director, the conductor Alexander Vedernikov, the musical director of the Bolschoi Theatre, Moscow. Rimskij-Korsakov’s masterpiece will be presented by the critic Paolo Terni on Monday 21st April at a conference open to the public.
The Festival continues on Friday 25th April with a piano recital by Michael Dalberto, who performs a concert entitled Variations on an Operatic Theme dedicated to music by Franz Listz, inspired by Verdi and Wagner.
On Monday 28th April the Famous Portuguese pianist Maria Joao Pires together with the cellist Pavel Gomziakov present a charming musical programme dedicated entirely to Fryderyk Chopin.
On Saturday 3rd May Giovanni Allevi will be playing for the first time, bringing his unique interpretations to the Teatro Lirico, Cagliari, in a concert that is not on the season ticket. This is one stop on his Allevilive Tour.
On Monday 5th May, the Filarmonica della Scala, conducted by Lorin Maazel, play in a concert sold out well in advance. The Franco-American conductor will be conducting the Scala Orchestra in the celebrated Seventh Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven and Petr Il’ič Čaikovskij’s Fourth Symphony.
Yves Abel conducts the Teatro Lirico Orchestra on the 9th and 10th May in a concert with the solo pianist, Benedetto Lupo performing music by Maurice Ravel and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
The VIII Festival di Sant’Efisio closes on Thursday 22nd May with the exceptional Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, conducted by the renowned Korean conductor Myung-Whun Chung, for the first time at the Teatro Lirico, Cagliari. The programme includes Johannes Brahms’ First Piano Concerto in D minor op. 15 with Lars Vogt as soloist and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony in C minor op. 67 one of the most famous musical scripts ever written.
As part of the Festival there are three musical interludes for “Aperitivo in Musica – Feudi della Medusa”, on 25th April, and the 4th and11th May. The principals and soloists are from the Teatro Lirico Orchestra. “Feudi della Medusa” are delighted to invite spectators to taste some of their wines after the concerts

From Monday 21st April to Saturday 10th May 2008, the exhibition Sotto il vestito dell’opera; a walk behind the scenes of the Teatro Lirico, will be held in the Stalls foyer. The photographs, taken in the technical and artistic workshops and in the rehearsal rooms, during the week before the opening night, are by Priamo Tolu.

Six days later, form the 16th to the 29th July, a further art exhibition Costantino Nivola – Un artista, una vita: le fotografie, i filmati, le opere will be held in the Stalls Foyer. This personal exhibition is one of the events organized for the twentieth anniversary of Nivola’s death. Nivola (1911-1988) started out in Orani (Nuoro) and became well-known internationally for the precision and rationality of his artistic style, emanating at all times from Sardinia.