Via Lattea 20

Puccini returns to Vacallo

Launched in 2004, La Via Lattea is not a festival in the traditional sense, but a kind of musical pilgrimage in which the landscape becomes the stage for an experience to be lived with body and mind.

Now in its 20th edition, La Via Lattea pays tribute to Giacomo Puccini, on the centenary of his death. It evokes Puccini's stays in Vacallo where, between 1888 and 1892, he composed most of the opera that made him famous: Manon Lescaut. And he does it in his own way, interweaving classical and contemporary music, history and landscape.

In addition to the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana, the Civica Filarmonica di Mendrisio and the Musica di Maslianico, La Via Lattea 20 features soloists from various European countries (Switzerland, Italy, France, Belgium), from South America, China and Japan.