Wagner visited the gardens of the Villa Rufolo in 1880 and declared he had found the magic garden of Klingsor, which is why Ravello's festival began as a Wagner celebration in 1953. The concerts are given on a platform built out over the terrace, with a drop of some 350 metres to the Amalfi coast behind the orchestra — a stage that is itself the reason to come.
The programme now runs well beyond Wagner into symphonic, jazz and dance, and includes a concert that begins before dawn and ends as the sun rises over the gulf.
No attendance figure is recorded here in this pass.
Ravello is reached by a steep road above Amalfi and has very limited parking and accommodation. Most audiences come up for the evening from the coast and go back down afterwards, on a road that is slow in summer.
PlanningA long summer window of separate evenings, including a dawn concert at the solstice.