From March 12th to 18th 2025 in the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino's Main Hall, LE STREGHE DI MACBETH, reduction by Verdi’s opera, will be staged with an open rehearsal (Wednesday 12 March at 8 p.m.), a performance open to the public (Saturday 15 March at 8 p.m.) and three performances reserved for schools (13-14 and 18 March at 10.30 a.m).

The show is the final moment of the Project All’Opera… Le scuole al Maggio! , now in its XVIII edition, and this year will involve on stage 450 children from primary schools in Florence as actors and chorus of white voices and some students who have activated paths of PCTO (Pathways for Transversal Skills and Orientation), all on stage alongside professional artists.

An intense training and preparation work that year after year is increasingly appreciated and required by schools in the area and beyond.

For the performances reserved for schools, 4,500 students from 69 educational institutions of 32 municipalities in Tuscany and Trentino Alto Adige (provinces of Arezzo, Florence, Pisa, Prato, Pistoia, Lucca, Siena and Trento) will be present, participating "actively" singing from the audience some pieces of the show through a course of training ad hoc by Venti Lucenti.

The project All’Opera… Le scuole al Maggio! , in fact, it is divided into two paths ; the main one, reserved for primary and secondary schools of the first grade of the Comune di Firenze, provides a series of meetings at school and in theatre, by the operators and trainers of Venti Lucenti, that guide students and teachers to discover the chosen opera, the choral pieces to sing and prepare them for the staging of the show in which they will be protagonists on stage.

In parallel for the classes that want to attend the show from the audience there is an ALTERNATIVE route: in addition to attending the show they can receive a specific training by Venti Lucenti to sing from the audience during some moments of the same.

All’Opera… Le scuole al Maggio! is a project of Fondazione CR Firenze, conceived and realized by Venti Lucenti in collaboration with the Fondazione Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and with the ’Assessorato Educazione, Formazione Professionale, Cultura della Memoria e della Legalità, Pari Opportunità del Comune di Firenze (Le Chiavi della Città). Since 2006 it has staged 18 original opera reductions, with 84 curtain-raisers, 11,000 students on stage, 31,000 students who sang from the audience, 4,800 teachers, 400 students in PCTO (Paths for Transversal Skills and Orientation).

The show LE STREGHE DI MACBETH has the direction, scenography and costumes of Manu Lalli; elaborations by Giuseppe Verdi and the original pieces of Luca Giovanni Logi. Playing in the hole the Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino conducted by Giuseppe La Malfa and singing on stage the Chorus of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino directed by Maestro Lorenzo Fratini. The scenes are by Roberta Lazzeri, the Light Designer is Fabio Rossi and the staging assistant is Chiara Casalbuoni. 

Forming the cast Francesco Grifoni (Macbeth), Maya Quattrini (Lady Macbeth), Chiara Casalbuoni (Ecate), Niccolò Franchi (Banquo), Stefano Mascalchi (Duncan), Leonardo Pesucci (Malcolm) e i solisti dell’Accademia del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino: Min Kim (Macbeth) e Rosanna Lo Greco (Lady Macbeth).

In veste di piccoli attori e di coro di voci bianche gli studenti delle scuole primarie di Firenze degli Istituti Carducci, Collodi, Colombo e Marconi che sono stati formati dai maestri di coro AnastasiyaByshlyaha, Diana Gaci Scaletti e dai formatori Venti Lucenti Manfredi Mariti, Viola Picchi Marchi, Leonardo Pesucci, Giorgia Tomasi.

On the stage also 16 students in PCTO (Paths for Transversal Skills and Orientation) of the Liceo Classico Michelangiolo, IIS Elsa Morante and IIS Alberti-Dante of Florence.  Another 21 students in PCTO of the Alberti-Dante Artistic High School in Florence collaborated on the creation of the equipment with the technical and scenographic departments of Venti Lucenti and Teatro del Maggio.

"There are not many projects that can boast a continuity to which corresponds such an assiduous participation that lasts over time - says Gabriele Gori, General Director of Fondazione CR Firenze -, the project 'All'Opera... Le scuole al Maggio!' is certainly one of these. For 18 years he has been able to captivate entire classes of boys and girls by showing them the beauty of theatre and opera. This is the great value of the project that we have the honor to promote together with Venti Lucenti. Seeing so many young people at the theatre always gives us a new emotion that we hope will spread to an ever wider audience".

Manu Lalli, Artistic director and director of Venti Lucenti : "The Project 'All’Opera… ' for 18 years involves children of Florentine schools in the experience of 'making the opera', participate, live it, create it together with professionals of the Company Venti Lucenti and those of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. A project that Fondazione CR Firenze, the City of Florence and the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino have long supported and that has become over the years one of the most important projects in music education on the national scene. In a historical moment of such complexity, as the present, the privilege of attending the theatre together with the children renews the hope and the wish that education, participation, music and art will be renewed bearers of empathy, of poetry and peace. In this edition we bring to the scene an original adaptation from Macbeth by Verdi: Verdi wrote Macbeth in 1847. The political climate of that period is vibrant throughout Europe: The great democratic revolutions begin and Verdi with his theater has the intention to 'educate' the public to the awareness that power without responsibility, that is driven only by personal ambition, can become, in a short time, tyranny. Macbeth is perfect for the educational idea of Verdi: a righteous and faithful knight becomes in a very short time a bloodthirsty tyrant, who, not to hear the calls of morality, entrusts the responsibility of his acts to witches . But, alas, witches do not exist!".

"An initiative that brings girls and boys from primary school to the opera and theater is not only a cultural opportunity, but an investment in the future of the country - says the Councillor for Education Benedetta Albanese - Theatre and operatic music promote the development of expression, listening skills and critical thinking, which are essential for individual and collective growth. We thank the organizers of the project 'All’Opera… Le scuole al Maggio!', as well as all those who are engaged every day to carry out in our schools the educational activities of 'Le chiavi della città'. Projects of this type strengthen the role of schools as spaces for inclusion and cultural enrichment, ensuring access to high-level artistic experiences. Institutional support for such initiatives represents a concrete commitment to the education of aware citizens and the protection of national cultural heritage".