From today, in the week in which the 63rd edition of the Spoleto Festival begins, a new section is inaugurated – which overlaps and merges with the other section ‘Long Ago in Spoleto’ – entirely dedicated to the yearbooks of the event founded by Menotti, a series of publications, of exquisite editorial workmanship, full of interesting content and valuable photographic material, a fascinating journey through the history of one of the most influential artistic events in the world.
Each yearbook is a small book, with its own splendidly illustrated cover, detailed programmes of all performances, portraits and profiles of the protagonists, critical essays by prestigious names, reproductions of sketches and artistic projects, stage photos and shots of the stars posing, and spaces dedicated to the advertisements and commercials of the period.

1958 Yearbook

From 1959 onwards, the yearbooks grow, also becoming a splendid narrative and photographic account of the previous edition.
Each appointment with the column will present a selection of 5 yearbooks in chronological order, choosing some of the most evocative pages and always presenting, for each year, the illustrated cover and the programme of that edition. If the yearbooks are not available, programmes or art sheets will be proposed for that edition.
This first issue will take us back to the period from 1958 to 1962, the dawning years of Menotti’s Festival, immortalised in images with his collaborators and artists such as Thomas Schippers, Anna Venturini, Nora Kaye and Carla Fracci. You can admire sketches by Franco Zeffirelli and Lila De Nobili, or read an artistic profile of the city by Alberto Moravia.
The materials presented here are those kept in the Carducci City Library. The yearbooks of the Festival of Two Worlds, and much more, can be consulted at the Documentation Centre at Casa Menotti, set up in collaboration with the City of Spoleto, the Festival of Two Worlds Foundation and the Monini Foundation, for the conservation, protection and enhancement of the memory of the Festival.

1959 Yearbook

1960 Yearbook

1961 Yearbook

1962 Yearbook

NEWS ARCHIVES

• 1947-48: Motorcycling in Spoleto | 14 August 2020
• When the Spoleto soccer team’s name was Virtus | 7 August 2020
• Ads and commercials in 1910 Spoleto | 24 July 2020
• The Spoleto City Museum | 17 July 2020
• Restoration works at the Teatro Caio Melisso | 10 July 2020
• Folk feasts’ posters in early XXth-century Spoleto | 3 July 2020
• “Urban VIII on his way to Rome”: or the odd story of the Spoletan Bernini | 26 June 2020
• The ex Spoleto-Norcia Railway: from the first project to its opening | 19 June 2020
• Spoleto Tourist Guidebooks #3 | 12 June 2020
• Christo’s Art at the Festival of Two Worlds | 5 June 2020
• Raffaele Canè – Pictures | 29 May 2020
• Spoleto Tourist Guidebooks #2 | 22 May 2020
• Spoleto Tourist Guidebooks | 15 May 2020
• Pietro Mascagni: the concert at the Teatro Nuovo | 8 May 2020
• The cable car Spoleto-Monteluco | 1 May 2020
• Two days of aviation in Spoleto | 24 April 2020