by InTrieste
At Teatro Verdi, a beloved year-end tradition returns with international opera stars, a festive Italian program, and a city-wide toast.
As the final hours of 2025 slip toward midnight, the grand chandelier of Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi will glow a little brighter than usual. On Wednesday, December 31, at 6 p.m., the historic opera house will host its much-anticipated Concerto di Fine Anno, a New Year’s Eve celebration that has become one of the most cherished musical rituals in Friuli Venezia Giulia — and well beyond.
Under the baton of Enrico Calesso, the concert brings together a cast that reads like a who’s who of today’s operatic scene. Leading the evening is the internationally acclaimed soprano Jessica Pratt, joined by tenor Marco Ciaponi and baritone Giorgio Caoduro, a Trieste native whose career has carried him to major stages around the world. With the Orchestra and Chorus of the Fondazione Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi di Trieste, and chorus master Paolo Longo, the performance promises both virtuosity and warmth — a musical embrace to close the year.
For Trieste, this concert is more than a performance. It is a social event, a shared moment that transforms the Teatro Verdi into what locals affectionately call “the city’s holiday living room.” Audiences arrive dressed for celebration, greeting friends and neighbors, aware that music — not fireworks — will mark the transition into the new year.
The program reflects that spirit of generosity and joy. It opens with a strong bel canto foundation, offering arias, duets, choruses, and orchestral moments by Gioachino Rossini and Gaetano Donizetti, followed by the lyrical elegance of Vincenzo Bellini. From there, the evening moves forward in time and emotional breadth, touching on the dramatic power of Giuseppe Verdi, the verismo intensity of Pietro Mascagni and Ruggero Leoncavallo, and the unmistakable lyricism of Giacomo Puccini.
The finale takes a lighter, distinctly Triestine turn, paying homage to the city’s long-standing love affair with operetta. Works by Jacques Offenbach and Franz Lehár close the program on a sparkling note, bridging high art and popular tradition — a reminder of Trieste’s unique position at the crossroads of Latin, Slavic, and Central European cultures.
This year’s concert arrives at a particularly auspicious moment for the Teatro Verdi. The 2025 season has opened to strong public enthusiasm, marked by a notable increase in subscriptions for opera and ballet, sold-out symphonic performances, and critical acclaim for the double debut of Pier Luigi Pizzi — the revered dean of Italian stage direction — with Le Nozze di Figaro and Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Against this backdrop, the New Year’s Eve concert stands as both a celebration and a confirmation of the theater’s renewed vitality.
The audience, as always, will reflect Trieste’s international soul. Regular attendees travel not only from across Friuli Venezia Giulia, but also from neighboring Austria, Slovenia, and Croatia, drawn by a concert that has become a shared cultural reference point across borders. Music, here, functions as a common language — one that welcomes seasoned opera lovers and first-time listeners alike.
As tradition dictates, the evening will conclude with a communal toast offered by the theater, an elegant gesture that turns the concert hall into a place of collective celebration. For the final brindisi, the Teatro Verdi extends its thanks to the Gigante Adriano winery of Corno di Rosazzo, from the Colli Orientali del Friuli Venezia Giulia, whose wines will accompany the audience into the first moments of the new year.
Tickets start at €25, with special promotions available for audiences under 34 — an invitation to younger generations to make this ritual their own. With only a handful of seats remaining, the message is clear: in Trieste, there are few better ways to say goodbye to the old year and welcome the new than with great voices, great music, and a shared glass raised beneath the gilded ceiling of the Teatro Verdi.
