OPERA ITALIANA IS IN THE AIR Returns to Central Park With HARMONIES OF PEACE

Opera Italiana Is in the Air will return to Central Park on Monday, September 21 for its ninth free New York concert. Led by founder and Music Director Alvise Casellati, Harmonies of Peace will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the Naumburg Bandshell, coinciding with the International Day of Peace.

The annual open-air event was founded in 2017 with the goal of bringing Italian opera outside traditional theater spaces and making it accessible to new audiences free of charge. This year's concert will bring together emerging artists and established musicians for a program centered on music as a means of connection.

"Opera was never meant to belong only to those who already know it," Casellati said. "Opera speaks directly to human emotions: love, hope, loss, courage and the desire for freedom. On the International Day of Peace, in a city that brings together cultures from all over the world, we want music to become a meeting place — open to everyone."

Casellati created Opera Italiana Is in the Air following a conversation with philanthropist Ambassador Daniele Bodini. Before devoting himself to music full-time, Casellati studied at Columbia Law School and practiced as a New York attorney. Following a hospitalization in 2007, music became an important part of his recovery, and he began studying conducting at The Juilliard School. In 2011, after conducting at Venice's La Fenice, he left law to pursue music professionally. He was appointed Artistic Director of Teatro Massimo in Palermo in 2025.

"Music healed me," Casellati said, "and Opera Italiana was born from the desire to give that experience back to others."

This year's Central Park concert will introduce soprano Daniela Machado and tenor Alessio Borraggine to the event's stage. Machado was the first-place winner of the 2026 Loren L. Zachary National Vocal Competition and is entering her third season as a Resident Artist at the Academy of Vocal Arts. Borraggine's credits include performances at Vienna's Musikverein, the Auditori of Barcelona and Alte Oper Frankfurt, as well as roles in Madama Butterfly, Cavalleria Rusticana, Tosca, Carmen, La Bohème and La Traviata.

The program will include music from Rossini's The Barber of Seville and William Tell, along with selections from Puccini's La Bohème, Manon Lescaut and Turandot. The concert will mark the 130th anniversary of La Bohème and the 100th anniversary of Turandot. Machado and Borraggine will perform selections including "Che gelida manina," "Sì, mi chiamano Mimì," "O soave fanciulla," "Tu che di gel sei cinta" and "Nessun dorma."

The evening will also feature the world premiere of everwander by composer Ethan Hsu, a student in The Juilliard School's Pre-College Composition program. Casellati selected Hsu's work through a blind review process without knowing the identities, ages, genders or backgrounds of the composers.

"Everwander is a word that I created to represent the feeling of endlessly wandering, an aimless adventure of sorts," Hsu said. "I knew that this would fit the theme of nature because I saw the piece as being inherently natural — the rhythms, the harmonies, the flow of the piece."

Musicians from the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and New York Philharmonic will perform alongside students from The Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music. The Weill Cornell Music & Medicine Chorus will open the evening with the U.S. and Italian national anthems.

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