Italian Opera Singing added to the UNESCO World Heritage list

We are particularly proud to announce that Italian Opera Singing has been added to the UNESCO World Heritage list!

Unesco, the UN culture agency, announced it was including the four-centuries-old art, mixing costume, drama and music, under its category of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Italian opera developed in the late 1500s and early 1600s in Florence, at the court of the Medici family. The first great composer of opera is considered to be Italy’s Claudio Monteverdi, who lived from 1567 to 1643. It typically involves intricate plots, elaborate staging and virtuoso singing.
Unesco described Italian opera as “a physiologically controlled way of singing that enhances the carrying power of the voice in acoustic spaces such as amphitheatres and churches”.
It added that the art promoted “collective cohesion and sociocultural memory”, as well as being “a means of free expression and intergenerational dialogue”.
Today there are about 60 opera houses across Italy – a global record – while opera singers such as 20th-Century tenor Luciano Pavarotti have been venerated as major stars.
Thanks to the opera and its librettos that Italian language was still known in the world. The song fades as you listen to it, but it touches you deeply !

External link

• Italian Opera Singing added to the UNESCO World Heritage list