in December 2023, on the eve of the premier of Verdi’s Don Carlo at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, UNESCO announced that the practice of Italian opera singing had joined its Intangible Cultural Heritage list.

The UN’s agency described opera singing as “a physiologically controlled way of singing that enhances the carrying power of the voice in acoustic spaces.” It further explained that Italian opera, whose “cultural value is recognized at national and international levels,” fosters “collective cohesion and sociocultural memory.”