Case Studies

In 2026, LYRI’s surtitles went with the lieder concerts for voice and piano at the Trame Sonore festival in Mantua. The texts were in the original language and in Italian.
The service let the audience fully understand the meaning of the words and how they speak with the music. It showed the intimacy and expressive power of this repertoire. In it, voice, poetry and piano become one listening experience.

In 2024, we provided Italian and English surtitles for the opera performances at the Baths of Caracalla. We showed the text on an LED wall.
The service supported performances in one of the most striking summer venues for opera. Here the grandeur of the ancient Roman baths meets the power of the stage and the music. The audience had an intense and gripping experience.

In 2023, LYRI’s surtitles went with the opera performances at the Arena di Verona. The Italian and English texts appeared right on the LED walls of the amphitheatre.
A project in a place that is unique in the world. Here the grandeur of the Arena meets the great opera tradition. The stage welcomes thousands of people. Every performance becomes a shared experience, with strong visual and musical impact.

At the beginning of 2026, we provided the Piccolo Teatro di Milano with surtitles in English and accessible Italian with sound description via projector for the weekend performances of Escaped Alone. The service allowed the audience to fully follow the performance, making its content more accessible within one of the most prestigious Italian theatre institutions. One of the distinctive features of the project was the projection of accessible Italian surtitles, including sound description, using different colours for each character. This solution allowed the audience to immediately identify who was speaking, making the performance even clearer and more accessible.

In 2026, we provided Italian and English surtitles for all performances of Esencia (performed in Spanish), a drama production presented as part of the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto.
The service let Italian and international audiences follow every performance. It broke down language barriers. The show reached a wider and more varied audience.
The composer Gian Carlo Menotti founded the Festival in 1958. He wanted a meeting point between European and American culture. For almost seventy years it has been a leading international event for theatre, music, dance and the performing arts.

We provided Italian and English surtitles to the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples. We showed them with a projector or LED wall for opera performances and lyric concerts. The service ran from September 2022 to February 2023. It ran again from June 2025 to December 2026.
It was a very prestigious experience. The San Carlo is one of the symbolic places of international musical culture. It opened in 1737. It is the oldest opera house in the world still in use. For almost three centuries it has been a landmark in the history of opera.

The Teatro Comunale di Bologna (TCBO) was founded in 1763. It is one of the most important opera and symphonic theatres in Italy and in the world. Its historic venue is in the centre of Bologna. It is known for its excellent acoustics. It has also hosted many works by Giuseppe Verdi. Today, besides the historic venue, it also has the Comunale Nouveau. This space opened in 2022. It hosts most of the programme while the theatre is being restored and redeveloped.
Since 2022, TCBO has used the LYRI system for every performance of the opera season and for lyric concerts. Surtitles and in-app subtitles are always in Italian and English. If the text is sung in another language, the app can also show surtitles in the original language at any time.

L’Analfabeta by Fanny & Alexander and Federica Fracassi was a fully accessible production. It was also fully automated, with no human operator. It had English subtitles and accessible Italian subtitles with sound description in the app. It also had audio introduction and audio description. It is a rare and unique project. It brought together every accessibility service LYRI offers. We built them in from the production stage, not just for single performances. The show is based on heterodirection. This structure let us match the accessible content very precisely to the live action. So we could automate all the management. As a result, all ten performances at the Piccolo Teatro di Milano were accessible.
A pioneering project. It points to the future of accessibility in live performance.

OperaVision is a free streaming platform. The European Union’s Creative Europe programme supports it. Opera Europa runs it. It works as a real digital stage. It shows opera, dance and concerts, live and on demand. It connects more than 40 theatres and opera companies. Subtitles in several languages open this content to an international audience.
On 9 November 2024, we worked with the Nationaltheater Mannheim. We provided live subtitles on OperaVision’s YouTube channel. They were in three languages: Italian, English and German. People at home could follow the opera in real time. They could choose one of the three languages. Just like any other YouTube video? Yes, but live!

Teatro Stabile del Veneto “Carlo Goldoni” (TSV) is a major Italian theatre institution. It was founded in 1992. It is recognised as a National Theatre. It runs the seasons of the Teatro Goldoni in Venice and the Teatro Verdi in Padua. It promotes the making and sharing of theatre culture. It pays special attention to classical drama and to Carlo Goldoni.
TSV promotes access for all. It wants to remove physical, sensory and cognitive barriers. It offers shows with audio description and subtitles in the LYRI app, and on smart glasses too. This makes the experience open to everyone.
“Il gabbiano” (The Seagull) was directed by Filippo Dini. With this production, the accessible-for-all model also reached one performance in Trento and one in Lucca.

The Teatro Regio di Parma is one of Italy’s most important and historic opera houses. It is in Parma. Duchess Maria Luigia wanted it, and it opened in 1829. It is a landmark of international opera. It is closely tied to the works of Giuseppe Verdi. Every year it hosts the Festival Verdi.
This production was special: immersive and in 360°. The subtitles in the app replaced surtitles perfectly. They made the opera easier to follow. People could follow it in several languages.