Festival of the Two Worlds

The Festival dei Due Mondi, also known as the Spoleto Festival, is an international event of music, art, culture and entertainment. It was born in 1958 from the initiative of the master composer Gian Carlo Menotti, who chose Spoleto for the presence of two theaters. 1968 was the year of experimentation, so much so that we find a show with a young Al Pacino. Each edition has attracted the attention of the media, but the one of 1962 stands out among all with the exhibition “Sculptures in the City”, where a new way of displaying has been launched. The most important sculptors were invited by Giovanni Carandente, creating a real open-air museum of contemporary art; with sculptures no longer in the interior but exhibited in the streets and squares of the city. The artists who took part in it belong to the world of prose, opera, dance, music, cinema and painting.
The event, which usually takes place from the last Friday of June, takes place between the Teatro Nuovo, the Teatro Caio Melisso, the Roman Theater, the Teatrino delle sei, the monumental complex of San Nicolò, the Cortile della Rocca albornoziana , the church of San Eufemia, the auditorium della Stella and Piazza del Duomo (where the final concert is usually held), hosted some of the greatest artists of the 900th century including Carla Fracci, Luciano Pavarotti and Ken Russel.
The Spoleto Festival has inspired other similar events across the border: The Spoleto Festival Usa In Charleston, South Carolina (twinned with Spoleto), founded in 1977 by Gian Carlo Menotti himself; the Melbourne International Arts Festival, an Australian event founded by the master in 1977.