Music has always played a fundamental role in Florence. Today the centre of Florentine music is the Florence Opera House – the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino – which organises one of the oldest and most prestigious European festivals through the realisation of annual concert, opera and dance seasons of international calibre.
The stage of the Florence Opera House has played host to a succession of the greatest names in the music of the last century: conductors such as Vittorio Gui, Zubin Mehta, Herbert von Karajan and Riccardo Muti, Maria Callas, Pietro Mascagni and Richard Strauss, Paul Hindemith and Bela Bartòk, Igor Stravinskij and Luigi Dallapiccola, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Luciano Berio as interpreters of their own music.
The Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze traditionally participates in the activity of the Maggio Musicale, recognising it as the greatest opera institution in Tuscany.
Along with other institutions of national and international standing, it contributes to retaining the lofty image of Florence in Italy and all over the world.