Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina, is one of the world's major performing arts festivals. It was founded in 1977 by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Gian Carlo Menotti, who sought to establish a counterpart to the Festival dei Due Mondi (the Festival of Two Worlds) in Spoleto, Italy. The annual 17-day late-spring event showcases both established and emerging artists in more than 120 performances of opera, dance, theater, classical music, and jazz.
When Italian organizers planned an American festival, they searched for a city that would offer the charm of Spoleto, Italy, and also its wealth of theaters, churches, and other performance spaces. Charleston was selected as an ideal location. (According to one of the history sketches in the book 'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil' by John Berendt, Savannah, Georgia had been approached about serving as the festival location, but city leaders declined.)
Read more about Spoleto Festival USA: The Festival's Mission, Programming Philosophy, Piccolo Spoleto
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