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Festival of Russian culture to open in Italy on Sunday

Over 250 cultural events will be held in no less than 40 Italian cities

ROME, January 14. /TASS/. An official ceremony to open the 2nd Russian Seasons festival, organized by the Russian government, will be held on Sunday in Rome’s National Academy of Santa Cecilia.

The Russian Seasons in Italy will open with a performance of the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, conducted by Valery Gergiev.

The Russian delegation to the event is led by Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets. The official opening ceremony, to be held at one of the oldest musical institutions in the world, is also expected to be attended by Russian Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky and Russian Ambassador to Italy Sergei Razov.

"Cultural events will be held in no less than 40 Italian cities. We plan to hold more than 250 various events and expect them to be attended by over 3 million viewers," Russian Deputy Culture Minister Alexander Zhuravsky has told TASS.

"In Italy, we will demonstrate all the best and outstanding aspects of the Russian culture - exhibitions, stage productions, symphonic concerts, ballet, movie screenings, folk music shows, circus, art festivals and jazz," he added.

The festival, to continue until late 2018, will feature over 60 symphonic concerts, over 40 ballets and more than 50 theatre productions. Other events include a festival of young filmmakers, as well as gastronomy events and educational projects.

The first Russian Seasons festival was held in Japan in 2017 and gathered over 3.5 million visitors in 42 cities.

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