Aspendos International Opera & Ballet Festival

Set in the two-thousand-year-old Roman theatre at Aspendos, this festival brings together opera and ballet companies from several countries for staged productions in one of the best preserved antique theatres in the world. The venue is noted for its many intact original features, and its auditorium can hold audiences of around two to four thousand.

Over successive editions the programme has ranged from grand opera to classical ballet, with titles such as Aida, Carmen, La Bayadère, Swan Lake and Tosca, performed by companies from Ankara, Mersin, İzmir, Zürich and Berlin. A recent festival opened with a production of Aida featuring soprano Joana Zhelezcheva and tenor Walter Fraccaro, and also included Tosca and an opera gala, underlining the mix of full productions and gala evenings that defines the festival.