The festival, which will take place July 16-23 in Napa Valley, will also feature Anne Sofie von Otter, baritone Samuel Ramey, violinists Nikolaj Znaider and Sarah Chang, cellist Nina Kotova, the Emerson String Quartet, pianist Piotr Anderszewski, and conductors Alan Gilbert, St_phane Denve, and Carlo Ponti Jr. The Russian National Orchestra will appear at several concerts.

The Festival del Sole is modeled after the Tuscan Sun Festival, created three years ago by IMG in Cortona, Italy. Like the older festival, it will blend music with literature, art, food, and wine.

The 2006 Tuscan Sun Festival will run August 5-20, and will include performances by soprano Anna Netrebko, mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, tenor Marcelo Alvarez, baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky, pianist Lang Lang, violinists Pinchas Zukerman, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, and Vadim Repin, and conductor Antonio Pappano as well as Bell, Kotova, Chang, Anderszewski, Znaider, and Denve.

IMG chairman Barrett Wissman is the general director of both festivals; Kotova, his wife, is the artistic director, collaborating with Frances Mayes, the author of Under the Tuscan Sun, on the Tuscan Sun Festival. San Francisco attorney Richard Walker is the co-director of the Fesival Del Sol.

Pappano, Dneve, Gilbert, and Sitkovetsky are serving as music directors of the Tuscan Sun Festival, while Dneve, Gilbert, and Ponti are in the same role at the Festival del Sole.

For more information, visit www.festivaldelsole.com.