16 May-15 July.

This top class festival celebrating its 23rd edition is longer and more articulated this year. The main section of the festival on the theme Nobilissima visione offers a rich calendar of opera, concerts, drama and ballet events (9 June-15 July). It builds on the millennium anniversary of the Holy Hermitage of Camaldoli, founded by St Romuald, a Benedictine monk from Ravenna. The festival invites its public to ponder upon the historical significance of western and eastern monasticism, and on its seemingly irrelevant topicality. It also offers an opportunity to tell the story of Ravenna from a different perspective. The music programme includes works that range from the Middle Ages music of the Eloqventia ensemble to the ancient Baltic songs of the Estonian Ensemble Heinavanker, from the chants of the Russian Orthodox Church by the Moscow Male Orthodox Choir to a concert by Uzbek singer Monajat Yulchieva, as well as a programme of traditional Ghazal, or Sufi mystic music. The monasticism of Tibet is also in the spotlight with a full week of meetings, rites, ceremonies and events dedicated to Tibet