There will be no operas at Arena di Verona this year

The cancellation of the August-September opera festival has just been announced by artistic director  Cecilia Gasdia.

The financial loss is in the region of 20 million Euros.

The blow to opera morale is incalculable.

There will, however, be carefully distanced concerts from a redesigned stage by singers including Marcelo Álvarez Marco Armiliato Roberto Aronica Daniela Barcelona Ezio Bosso Plácido Domingo Yusif Eyvazov Vittorio Grigolo Francesco Meli Anna Netrebko Leo Nucci Daniel Oren Lisette Oropesa Michele Pertusi Saimir Pirgu Anna Pirozzi Marina Rebeka Luca Salsi Fabio Sartori Ekaterina Semenchuk María José Siri and Sonya Yoncheva.

The audience capacity has been cut from 13,500 to 3,000.