GIO Festival – Roseto Valfortore Stop

GIO Festival arrives in Roseto Valfortore

The GIO Festival – Giordano International Opera Festival is the first major event promoted by the Foggia Chamber of Commerce to celebrate the life and work of the great Foggia-born composer Umberto Giordano. From June 5 to 20, 2026, the festival travels across the Capitanata region, visiting Foggia, Manfredonia, Vieste, Peschici, Torremaggiore, Biccari, and Roseto Valfortore, bringing opera, street theatre, and jazz to the squares and villages of the province of Foggia, in Puglia.

The Roseto Valfortore stop, nestled in the Subappennino Dauno and listed among the 'Most Beautiful Villages in Italy', is one of the most anticipated events of the GIO Jazz section, a format that brings great Italian music performers to local towns.

«Giordano in Blue»: when opera meets jazz

On Friday, June 19, 2026, at 9:30 PM, the Municipal Amphitheatre of Roseto Valfortore welcomes the concert «Giordano in Blue. Opera meets jazz», performed by the Danilo Rea Quartet. On stage, one of Italy's most acclaimed jazz pianists, Danilo Rea, leads an exceptional ensemble: Massimo Moriconi on double bass, Ellade Bandini on drums, and Pietro Tonolo on saxophone.

The project reimagines operatic atmospheres through the lens of jazz improvisation: a dialogue between the melodramatic tradition of Umberto Giordano and the contemporary language of jazz, spanning swing, classical, pop, and rock—the hallmark of an artist capable of blending diverse genres with natural ease.

A village turned into a stage

The evening transforms the stone heart of Roseto Valfortore into an open-air auditorium. The concert has been met with great enthusiasm by the public and was hailed by Mayor Lucilla Parisi as «one of the highest expressions of contemporary Italian music» and a key element in regional development through cultural tourism and the promotion of artistic excellence.

For the Municipality of Roseto Valfortore, the GIO Festival stop represents an opportunity to link its name to an international-scale project, capable of attracting visitors to the Subappennino Dauno and showcasing the Capitanata region through great music.

The festival in the name of Umberto Giordano

The GIO Festival was founded in 2026 as the «Giordano International Opera Festival» and is promoted by the Foggia Chamber of Commerce together with the Municipality and Province of Foggia, with the support of the Puglia Region and Puglia Culture. The artistic direction is entrusted to maestros Gianna Fratta and Dino De Palma. The grand finale, on June 20 in Foggia, features Giordano's «Andrea Chénier» in a production by the Teatro alla Scala in Milan.