"Freedom, my friends, is the only homeland worth having." – Lorenzo Da Ponte 

Lorenzo Da Ponte is the invisible witness guiding the 19th edition of the Piccolo Opera Festival, dedicated to the theme of Freedom, explored in all its forms: artistic, sensory, and cultural. 

It was Da Ponte who wrote for Mozart the three operas that perhaps capture this idea better than any others: Le nozze di Figaro (social freedom), Don Giovanni (moral freedom), and Così fan tutte (emotional freedom). He was also the one who, after fleeing Italy, brought Italian opera to America, opening new worlds. A man who lived many lives, refusing to be defined by a single identity. 

In 2026, nearly two hundred years after his death, Da Ponte returns metaphorically to his “second homeland”: the city of Gorizia, whose local nobility played a key role in supporting the writer during his successful Viennese decade (1781–1791), which lasted until the death of Emperor Joseph II. 

Developed through a network of productions and co-productions involving Italian, cross-border, and international institutions, the 2026 artistic programme brings together repertoire works, new commissions, world premieres, and chamber music activities. These will be presented across multiple venues in the region, including Collio, Gorizia, Nova Gorica, and Trieste. 

A festival that continues to strengthen cooperation and enhance the cultural and landscape heritage of this borderland between Italy and Slovenia—a land once crossed by Da Ponte himself in his youth—reminding us that true freedom lies in crossing borders, not building them.