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Spoleto Festival USA - History was founded in 1977 as the American counterpart
to the Festival dei Due Mondi (Festival of Two Worlds) in Spoleto, Italy. Pulitzer Prize-winning
composer Gian Carlo Menotti began the Italian festival in 1958 as a forum for young American artists
in Europe. The festival quickly became an artistic home for a large group of artists, both traditional
and experimental, who found the mix of dance, theater, opera, music, and the visual arts to be both
exciting and stimulating.
When Maestro Menotti planned an American festival, he searched for an American city that would offer
the charm of Spoleto, Italy, and also its wealth of theaters, churches, and other performance spaces.
Charleston, South Carolina was the perfect counterpart. A city that had been home to the first
theater in America, the first ballet company in America, and is still home to the oldest musical
organization in the country, Charleston is small enough to be dominated by non-stop arts events
during the 17-day festival, but also large and sophisticated enough to provide a knowledgeable
audience and appropriate theaters.
Spoleto Festival USA - History has maintained traditions of those first festivals such as a dedication to
young artists, a fascination with contemporary effort, an enthusiasm for providing unusual performance
opportunities to recognized masters in their fields, and a commitment to all the performing arts.
Each year audience members experience a broad range of artistic styles and forms, including classical
ballet; modern and post-modern dance; opera; chamber, symphonic, and choral music; jazz; theater; and
the literary and visual arts. For 17 days each year, the arts become the most important activity in
Charleston. More than 100 performances are offered each season by artists from around the world with
as many as ten performances on any given day. In addition, Piccolo Spoleto, the city-organized companion
festival, schedules another 200 events over the same period of time.
Spoleto Festival USA - History has earned a reputation for offering programs of the highest artistic caliber,
supporting new and innovative works, nurturing outstanding young artists, and expanding public
appreciation of the arts. This focus has brought Spoleto international acclaim.
In 2001, Spoleto celebrated its 25th Anniversary Season with such critically acclaimed productions
as Puccini's Manon Lescaut, conducted by the festival's newly appointed Music Director, Opera &
Orchestra, Emmanuel Villaume, Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, and A Servant to Two Masters performed by
the Royal Shakespeare Company in its festival debut. The New York Times reported: "Spoleto Festival,
now celebrating its 25th anniversary, has become a major and evidently permanent part of the American
cultural landscape," while The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said, "At 25, Spoleto Festival USA - History felt
young, vital, alive and ambitious."
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