Opera under the stars
On a hill between the valleys of the Potenza and Chienti rivers, Macerata is an elegant university town, with a historic centre of brick palaces, squares and churches, enclosed by walls, and a lively cultural life. Its most original monument is the Sferisterio, a huge neoclassical arena built between 1823 and 1829 to a design by the architect Ireneo Aleandri, financed by a hundred wealthy citizens, to host the games of "pallone col bracciale", a popular ball game of the time, in which the players hit a heavy leather ball with a wooden armband studded with spikes, in front of thousands of spectators. The arena, about 90 metres long, has a semicircular side with two orders of boxes and a tall, straight wall on the other side, against which the ball bounced.
When the game fell out of fashion, the Sferisterio found a new life: in 1921 it hosted a memorable performance of Aida, and since 1967 it has been the venue of the Macerata Opera Festival, one of the most important open-air opera festivals in Italy, held every summer, in July and August, with performances of the great operas of Verdi, Puccini and Bizet in a setting of extraordinary acoustics and atmosphere, with the long straight wall used as a backdrop for spectacular stagings. The town also has the Palazzo Buonaccorsi, with the civic museums and a museum of carriages, the Piazza della Libertà, with the Loggia dei Mercanti, and the Basilica of the Madonna della Misericordia, by Vanvitelli. Macerata is the birthplace of the Jesuit Matteo Ricci, missionary in China in the sixteenth century.
Tip: book the opera festival in advance and bring a cushion; walk along the old walls for views of the hills.
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