Gaulitana: A Festival of Music was yet again involved in a foreign artistic collaboration. In the beginning of July, the festival’s artistic and musical director Colin Attard was in Italy conducting a production of Puccini’s opera Madama Butterfly. This ensued from an invitation from the Coro San Basilio il Grande (of the Abbazia Santa Maria di Grottaferrata) and its director Clemente Corsaro, who organized the event. Corsaro and quite a few artists participating in Butterfly often featured in past Gaulitana operatic productions or Gaulitana festival events.
The openair production, directed by the renowned Franco Zappalà, was held at the ditch of the very historic and fortified Abbazia in Grottaferrata – one of the enchanting towns in the Castelli Romani region south of Rome –, as part of the millennium celebrations marking the consecration of the Abbazia’s church, also with the support of Grottaferrata’s local council.

