Performer: Giada Frasconi

Marco Tullio Giordana's new production at the Maggio Musicale may be static, but musically there's much to enjoy in this rare slice of middle-period Verdi.

Commissioned as an operetta, La rondine became a true opera instead, and was presented in 1917 in Montecarlo at the high point of WW1.

Metastasio's Didone abbandonata has been set to music at least sixty times. Florence revives a version by Leonardo Vinci composed in 1726.