Puccini Festival has announced the appointment of Plácido Domingo as artistic director of the Accademia Pucciniana, the educational initiative linked to the festival in Torre del Lago.
“This appointment is a source of great joy for me,” Domingo said in an official statement, accepting the role at the academy dedicated to the study and performance of Giacomo Puccini’s operatic repertoire. The idea for the position emerged last November, during the presentation of the Puccini Prize to the singer in Torre del Lago.
Fabrizio Miracolo, president of the Fondazione Festival Pucciniano, welcomed the appointment, describing Domingo as “a guide of extraordinary authority and prestige,” and underlining his role in promoting Puccini’s artistic legacy. Miracolo added that Domingo’s involvement is expected to strengthen the academy’s international profile.
The Accademia Pucciniana is designed to support young artists through an advanced training programme focused on Puccini’s operas and stage practice. Its activities are closely connected to the festival’s broader mission, encapsulated in the guiding theme Tutto comincia da qui (“Everything begins here”), which highlights the importance of studying Puccini’s work in the place where many of his operas were conceived.
Founded in 1930, the Puccini Festival takes place each summer in Torre del Lago, near the composer’s former home, and remains one of the world’s leading opera festivals dedicated to a single composer. Over the decades, it has welcomed many of the most prominent figures in operatic history—among them Domingo himself, who has maintained a long-standing artistic relationship with the festival as both performer and conductor.
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