# Teatro Verdi (Brindisi)

The Theatre Nuovo Teatro Giuseppe Verdi of Brindisi, Italy was inaugurated on December 20, 2006, with a concert directed by Maestro Riccardo Muti. Since 2022 Maestro Stefano Miceli is the chairman of the theatre foundation.

## Structure

The theatre, 1172 seats, is located in the city center of Brindisi, and has a surface area of 4500 square meters, and a volume of 40 thousand cubic meters. Along the bottom of the main hall (738 seats) are two tunnels (respectively 351 and 83 admissions). The total capacity is 1172 seats. The stage is one of the largest in Italy, being 25.50 m wide, 18 m high and 20 m deep.

## Artistic activity

In the first fifteen years of activity the Nuovo Teatro Verdi represented the most significant cultural movement in Brindisi with a devotion to prose thanks to important guest artists. In 2022 the theater underwent an epochal change due to the new presidency of the Nuovo Teatro Verdi Foundation, assigned on a voluntary basis, to Stefano Miceli.The Nuovo Teatro Verdi for the first time faced a significant cultural expansion into new artistic areas. Born with Stefano Miceli’s presidency: the Nuovo Teatro Verdi Orchestra, the first symphonic season, an orchestral production centre, a jazz festival called Verdi in Jazz, a Verdi Gala to pay homage to the theater itself in the name of the opera composer after whom the theater is named.
Nuovo Teatro Verdi Theater Foundation Presidents:
2006-2012: Domenico Mennitti, Mayor of Brindisi
2012-2016: Mimmo Consales, Mayor of Brindisi
2016-2017: Angela Carluccio, Mayor of Brindisi
2017-2018: extraordinary commissioner: Santi Giuffrè
2019-2022: Katiuscia by Rocco
2022-2023: Stefano Miceli
from October 2023 - 1 March 2024 (early resignation): Luca Ward

## Nuovo Teatro Verdi Orchestra

The Orchestra of the Nuovo Teatro Verdi was founded by Stefano Miceli in 2022, during the year of his presidency. It was the resident orchestra of the theater itself for the first time in the history of the Nuovo Teatro Verdi. The Nuovo Teatro Verdi Orchestra debuted on January 1, 2022 on the occasion of the New Year's Eve Concert at the Nuovo Teatro Verdi under the musical direction of its founder Stefano Miceli. Various national and international institutions took part to its debut, including the Under-Secretary General of the United Nations Mr. Atul Khare, who came from New York, where also Stefano Miceli lives. The Nuovo Teatro Verdi Orchestra and its symphonic season saw the musical direction, on a voluntary basis, of its President and founder Stefano Miceli.

## Closure of the Orchestra and controversy

In August 2023, just after the conclusion of the first symphonic season of the Nuovo Teatro Verdi Orchestra, despite having recorded positive budgets, unanimous acclaim and sold out all concerts, Stefano Miceli, president of the Nuovo Teatro Verdi Foundation, decided to leave the presidency immediately after the election of the new Mayor of the City of Brindisi, Giuseppe Marchionna, the latter elected from the ranks of Forza Italia. In 1991 Giuseppe Marchionna was already elected mayor of Brindisi for his first time as a member of the socialist party. In the early 1990s Giuseppe Marchionna was also arrested. Stefano Miceli, who is reputated a worldwide acclaimed musician previously appointed as the president of the Nuovo Teatro Verdi foundation for his well-known extraordinary abilities in arts, had strong discrepancies in cultural visions with Giuseppe Marchionna, followed by his voluntary resignation. The mayor of Brindisi, Giuseppe Marchionna, with a delay of approximately two months, appointed Luca Ward as the new president of the Nuovo Teatro Verdi foundation, in succession to the presidency of Stefano Miceli. Luca Ward is considered a person notoriously close to the Italian right party. According to the new president and to his artistic consultant Carmelo Grassi, also filo-political, Mayor Giuseppe Marchionna decided to close the Orchestra of the Nuovo Teatro Verdi and its associated symphonic season, Verdi Gala and Verdi in Jazz Festival. The choice aroused unanimous disdain from citizens, local institutions and national cultural organizations. A few months later the Orchestra del Nuovo Teatro Verdi was already supposed to undertake its first tour in China under Stefano Miceli’s previous invitation, clearly impossible anymore. Citizens of Brindisi continued to demand the return of Stefano Miceli to the presidency of the Nuovo Teatro Verdi foundation and of the newly formed orchestra, but various petitions made by thousands of people were never accepted by the mayor Giuseppe Marchionna. Five months after his designation, on March 1, 2024, the new appointed president of the Nuovo Teatro Verdi foundation Luca Ward declared his early voluntary resignation, leaving the Nuovo Teatro Verdi foundation power and full decisions to mayor Giuseppe Marchionna.