The festival, which runs though June 12, also includes two other new opera productions: Mozart's Don Giovanni, staged by G‹nter Kr‹mer in an innovative, in-the-round setting, and Respighi's La bella dormente nel bosco (Sleeping Beauty in the Woods), staged by puppet specialist Basil Twist.
Other highlights include a visit from Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, performances of Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem and Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, and a mini jazz festival featuring vocalist Shirley Horn.
Theater offerings include a staging by Lee Breuer's Mabou Mines of Ibsen's A Doll's House featuring male actors under four and a half feet tall opposite unusually tall women.
Spoleto USA was founded in 1977 by composer Gian Carlo Menotti as a sister festival to his Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy.