 The 2013 festival opened on May 24, 2013, with a ceremony at Charleston's City Hall | |
| Date | late spring |
|---|---|
| Duration | 17 days |
| Location | Charleston, South Carolina |
| Theme | performing arts festival |
Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina, is one of America's major performing arts festivals. It was founded in 1977 by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Gian Carlo Menotti, who sought to establish a counterpart to the Festival dei Due Mondi (The Festival of Two Worlds) in Spoleto, Italy.
When Italian organizers planned an American festival, they searched for a city that would offer the charm of Spoleto, Italy, and also its wealth of theaters, churches, and other performance spaces. Charleston was selected as an ideal location, with Menotti saying of Charleston:
- It's intimate, so you can walk from one theatre to the next. It has Old World charm in architecture and gardens. Yet it's a community big enough to support the large number of visitors to the festival.[1]
The annual 17-day late-spring event showcases both established and emerging artists in more than 150 performances of opera, dance, theater, classical music, and jazz.
- ^ Debbie Dalhouse (March 26, 1976). "World-Renowned Artists to Gather in Charleston". Spartanburg Herald. p. C8. Retrieved May 24, 2013.