On 4 March 2026, the Nelum Pokuna Mahinda Rajapaksa National Theatre in Colombo, Sri Lanka, became the stage for FURIOSO – Digital Opera, dall’Orlando di Ludovico Ariosto, a landmark event marking one of the most ambitious international dissemination actions of the Italian PNRR-funded project MUSIC4D. The event was organised in collaboration with the Embassy of Italy in Sri Lanka, and the performance brought together eight conservatories and two universities from Southern Italy.
FURIOSO converged centuries of poetic tradition with immersive digital technology before a live audience of more than 1000 spectators, including diplomatic authorities and the Sri Lankan Minister of Religious and Cultural Affairs.
FURIOSO traces its imaginative roots to Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso, the monumental 16th-century Renaissance epic born in Ferrara, itself rooted in the medieval legend of the paladin Roland. The opera’s subject, authored by M° Carlo Magni (Conservatorio Antonio Scontrino di Trapani), distils eight dramatic episodes from the poem into a continuous theatrical arc: from Angelica Pursued and The Enchanted Palace to Astolfo on the Moon and the climactic Duel of Lampedusa. Each episode was realised by a different partner conservatory, making FURIOSO a quite unique and genuinely collective creation.
The evening was opened by the national anthems of Sri Lanka and Italy, followed by addresses from H.E. Damiano Francovigh, Italian Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Prof. Hiniduma Sunil Senevi, Sri Lankan Minister of Buddhasasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs, M° Fabio Crescente (Conservatorio Alessandro Scarlatti di Palermo), Scientific Coordinator of the production, and the librettist M° Carlo Magni. The presence of artistic, scientific, and institutional figures side by side underscored the event’s character as an integrated act of cultural diplomacy.
The Sri Lanka event demonstrated MUSIC4D’s capacity to operate in global contexts, combining digital innovation with the valorisation of Southern Italy’s cultural heritage, ecological awareness, and active audience participation.
The event strengthened institutional relations between Italy and Sri Lanka, while consolidating the presence of Southern Italian conservatories in extra-European academic contexts. The performance reached local audiences and diplomatic authorities in one of the country’s premier international theatre venues, generating significant public visibility for the project. At the same time, the immersive and interactive formats developed within Music4D were validated in a global setting, demonstrating the successful integration of digital art and environmental awareness in live performance. The coordinated presence of artistic, scientific, and executive figures from across the consortium further reinforced the project’s interinstitutional cohesion. The event attracted broad media attention in Sri Lanka, culminating in a dedicated feature published on 10 March 2026 in Life, the cultural supplement of Wijeya Newspapers.
