In the Cathedral of Spoleto, the Festival dei Due Mondi celebrates the Christmas season
As Christmas approaches, the Cathedral of Spoleto opens its doors to music and contemplation. This special initiative - free to the public with ticket reservation - has been conceived for the city and organized by the Fondazione Festival dei Due Mondi in collaboration with the Archdiocese of Spoleto-Norcia.
A new chapter thus begins for the Spoleto Festival which, under the Artistic Direction of Daniele Cipriani, aims to fully enhance the Festival’s historical and cultural heritage on an international scale and to further strengthen its bond with the city and its community.
With Elevazione spirituale, the Festival dei Due Mondi inaugurates the Christmas festivities on 13 December at 5:00 p.m. in one of the city’s most emblematic places: the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta.
The event, conceived by Daniele Cipriani, will feature performances by the Nova Opera Orchestra and the Coro della Diocesi di Roma, conducted by Mons. Marco Frisina, a renowned figure among contemporary composers of sacred music. The initiative offers a moment of prayer and attentive listening in which music and the spoken word intertwine to guide inner reflection, and it confirms the long-standing collaboration between the Archdiocese and the Festival in the name of a profound dialogue between faith, art, and culture.
In addition to the musical programme, the event includes deeply meditative readings, among them a passage from Bariona o il figlio del tuono by Jean-Paul Sartre, written at Christmas 1944 for his fellow prisoners in the Trier camp, and excerpts from speeches by Pope Leo XIV dedicated to peace.
The Nova Opera Orchestra brings together Italian and European musicians of exceptional artistic calibre, with a repertoire ranging from classical and operatic works to cinematic scores. It has taken part in numerous important cultural and charitable initiatives in Italy and abroad, including the “Grace for the World” concert in St. Peter’s Square in 2025.
Founded in 1984 by Mons. Marco Frisina, the Coro della Diocesi di Roma accompanies the principal liturgies and celebrations of the Diocese and of the Holy Father, and has long appeared in prestigious festivals and concert series.
Programme
Bariona o il figlio del tuono is a theatrical narrative of remarkable originality, written by Jean-Paul Sartre during his imprisonment at Christmas 1944 for his fellow detainees in the Trier camp. At that time, Sartre, the father of atheistic existentialism, engaged openly and sincerely with questions of faith and theology. He composed the text in just a few weeks, employing religious and sacred language as a symbolic tool of freedom. Sartre himself performed in the work, directed his fellow prisoners as actors, and personally oversaw the staging, set design, and costumes.
Set in Judea under Roman rule, the story centres on Bariona (nicknamed “son of thunder”), the leader of a village near Bethlehem who, oppressed by the tribute demanded by the Romans, decides to resist their domination with his people. But the appearance of the angel and the birth of Jesus lead Bariona to embrace a new hope: liberation from both external and internal slavery. Intended to strengthen solidarity and unity among the prisoners and to symbolically evoke the resistance in an occupied France, the text unfolds as a kind of “Christmas tale” addressed to both believers and non-believers.
Speech by Pope Leo XIV
To the movements and associations that gave life to the “Arena of Peace”, Verona, 30 May 2025
“The journey toward peace requires hearts and minds educated to attentiveness toward others and capable of recognising the common good within today’s context. The path that leads to peace is a communal one, built through the tending of just relationships among all living beings. Peace, as Saint Giovanni Paolo II affirmed, is an indivisible good: it is either everyone’s or it is no one’s (cf. Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo rei socialis*, 26). It can truly be attained and lived as a quality of life and as integral development only if within our consciences there is activated ‘a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good’ (ibid., 38).
In an age such as ours, marked by speed and immediacy, we must rediscover the long timescales required for such processes to unfold. History, experience, and the many good practices we know teach us that authentic peace takes shape beginning from reality itself, territories, communities, local institutions, and so forth, and by listening to that reality. For this very reason, we understand that peace becomes possible when differences and conflicts are not eliminated but recognised, embraced, and traversed”.
Admission to Elevazione spirituale is free with a ticket. Tickets (maximum two per person) will be available while seats last starting at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, 5 December online at www.festivaldispoleto.com and, in Spoleto, at the Festival Box Office in Via Saffi 12, which this year will once again be open for the Christmas season.
For further information, please visit www.festivaldispoleto.com.