Maggio Musicale Fiorentino is an annual arts festival in Florence, including a notable opera festival; it was founded in April 1933 by conductor Vittorio Gui with the aim of presenting contemporary and forgotten operas in visually dramatic productions. It was the first music festival in Italy. The first opera presented was Verdi's early Nabucco, his early operas then being rarely staged. It now takes place between late April, May and into June, typically with four operas.
The first festival's success led to it becoming a biennial event in 1937 with the presentation of nine operas, but after 1937, it became an annual festival, except during the Second World War. Performances take place in the Teatro Comunale and Teatro Piccolo (as the name suggests, for smaller-scale operas), plus the historic Teatro della Pergola. A new opera house opened in 2011.
The present Artistic Director is Paolo Arcà and, since 1985, the principal conductor is Zubin Mehta.
In 2009, due to government funding cuts, two of the four operas (Billy Budd and Macbeth) were cancelled.