On March 21, 2025, UNESCO celebrated the first World Glacier Day, inaugurating the International Year of Glacier Protection and the decade dedicated to the Cryosphere. These initiatives aim to highlight, over the coming months and years, the vital role of glaciers and the urgent challenges posed by their accelerated melting.
In this context, we are pleased to share with you the project that will be at the heart of the special 30th edition of Opera Domani: a new contemporary civic opera exploring the fragility of polar ecosystems, engaging children aged 6 to 14 in a journey of discovery and environmental awareness through the poetic and musical language of opera.

Little Bear and the Ice Mountain
Opera domani – Special 30th Edition
Music by Giovanni Sollima
Libretto by Giancarlo De Cataldo
Directed by Lorenzo Ponte

Little Bear continues the path dedicated to environmental sustainability that began with our first civic opera, Acquaprofonda, commissioned to Giovanni Sollima and Giancarlo De Cataldo. Since 2020, it has brought children from Bolzano to Messina closer to, and inspired them on, the issue of water pollution. The success this contemporary fable achieved throughout Italy led us to collaborate once again with the same creative team. Joining them is director Lorenzo Ponte, who, together with his young team, will bring to the stage the story of two polar bear cubs fighting to protect their endangered land.
The project was born from the collaboration between Opera Education and Teatro La Fenice of Venice. Following performances of Acquaprofonda at Teatro Malibran over the past two seasons, we decided to join forces to address the theme of glacier melting.
Alongside the educational and artistic expertise of our organizations, a crucial new partnership will be established with the Institute of Polar Sciences of the Italian National Research Council (CNR), which will support the project with scientific and educational contributions, as well as direct documentation from the polar regions.
The story of Little Bear will also cross national borders, involving two international partners: Opéra Grand Avignon, which will bring our little bears to France, and the Festival de Granada, which will sing with them alongside young audiences in Spain.

Debut: 29th January – Teatro Malibran, Venice