WHO WE ARE

The 1st International Illica Opera Stage Competition is organized by the Pro Loco of Castell’Arquato. The Pro Loco is a local voluntary Association, founded to promote the social, cultural and tourist life of the medieval town. The association works in collaboration with the Town Council of Castell’Arquato to produce cultural activities, of which the most prestigious are the summer operatic events connected with the life and works of the great librettist and dramatist Luigi Illica (1853-1919) and “Rivivi il Medioevo” (literally Re-live the Middle Ages) which takes place on the second weekend of September every year.
For the Illica celebrations the Pro Loco of Castell’Arquato and the Town Council of Castell’Arquato receive and important contribution form the Fondazione di Piacenza e di Vigevano, a banking institution which dedicates great attention to activities that benefit young people and pensioners and that makes culture more widely available through quality, dedicated projects.

The Town Council of Castell’Arquato acts as a promoter of cultural and tourist activities in the area, actively promoting the memory of Luigi Illica through the Illica Prize, the International Illica Opera Stage Voice Competition and the maintenance of the Luigi Illica Museum which lies just beside the ancestral home of the composer.

The Province of Piacenza is the intermediary local authority between Town Council and Regional Government and offers an important contribution to the realization of the Illica events. It represents the provincial community and looks after its interests by promoting and coordinating development (art. 3 Dlgs. 267/2000); in the fields of culture and tourism it has the task of valorising the patrimony of Piacenza’s identity and hence, for sustaining initiatives it retains of particular merit in this sense, by granting its own patronage.
The historic residence Casa Illica, where the composer was born, offers generous hospitality and logistic assistance to the prize and Competition.

PRO LOCO of CASTELL’ARQUTO Organization
Tiziana Inzani - President
Flavia Vescovi - Vice President

Committee for the Illica Events
Gabriella Tacconi - coordinator
M° Paolo Burzoni
Diego Cavozzi
Michelle Dufour
Web site curator- Franco Ticchi

Cultural Delegate for the Town of Castell’Arquato - Bernardo Baccanti

1st International Illica Opera Stage Competition
President Rolando Panerai
Artistic Director Vivien Hewitt