El Jem International Festival of Symphonic Music opens its 39th season on 11 July

Tunisia's longest-running classical music event opens its 39th season on Saturday 11 July, when the International Festival of Symphonic Music of El Jem returns to the UNESCO-listed Roman amphitheatre at the centre of the Sahel town, with ten concerts spread across five weeks through to 15 August.

The opening night will present Dido and Aeneas, Henry Purcell's 17th-century baroque opera, in a production by the Théâtre de l'Opéra de Tunis staged and choreographed by Omar Rajeh and conducted by Stéphane Viguier, featuring the Ballet de l'Opéra de Tunis alongside the Tunisian symphony orchestra, the festival said at its press conference on 10 June.

The 2026 programme brings orchestras and soloists from five countries — Tunisia, France, Austria, Italy and Spain — covering a range that stretches from baroque opera to Neapolitan song and film scores, La Presse de Tunisie and Tekiano reported after the announcement.

The full programme

On 15 July, Tunisian singer Dorsaf Hamdani joins the Orchestre Symphonique de Sousse for an evening titled Tarabiat Symphoniques. Three days later, the Camerata de Barcelona performs Colores de España.

France's Orchestre L'Orphéon takes the stage on two consecutive nights: on 24 July for a concert dedicated to the exile songs of Lebanese composer Marcel Khalifé, featuring his Concerto Al Andalus, with contributions from the Mehdi Haddjeri Band, La Cité des Marmots du 93 and Ouled El Jem; and on 25 July for a symphonic programme pairing Ravel's Boléro with Rimsky-Korsakov's Shéhérazade.

The Orchestre du Bal de l'Opéra de Vienne — making what Tekiano described as its 28th appearance at the festival — follows on 1 August. Italy's Orchestra Instabile di Arezzo (OIDA) then takes the arena for two nights: film music from Cinecittà and Hollywood on 6 August, and a programme of celebrated Neapolitan songs on 8 August.

The Orchestre Symphonique de Carthage performs on 12 August. Austrian violinist Yuri Revich and his ensemble The Sound close the season on 15 August.

Venue and context

The amphitheatre of El Jem stands in the modern city of El Jem — ancient Thysdrus — in central Tunisia, and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979. Built around 238 AD in the Roman province of Africa Proconsularis, it is one of the most intact Roman stone monuments in the world.

Its dimensions — a long axis of 148 metres and a short axis of 122 metres — and a capacity judged at 35,000 spectators place it among the largest amphitheatres ever built. It is the largest Roman colosseum in North Africa.

The festival is considered by the Tunisian Ministry of Culture among the most important cultural events in the country, and is the only festival in Tunisia dedicated exclusively to symphonic music. European orchestras from several countries have participated since the festival's founding in 1986.

El Jem sits in the Mahdia Governorate, in the heart of the Sahel, roughly an hour from Sousse and under three hours from Tunis by road or on the main rail line.

Funding and partnerships

The Fondation Arts et Culture de l'UIB (Union Internationale de Banques) is the festival's principal sponsor, supporting the event for the eighth consecutive year, Réalités Magazine reported. The foreign performances benefit from the support of their respective countries' embassies in Tunisia. The Austrian ambassador attended the June press conference.

Tickets are expected to go on sale through the festival's official site, festivaleljem.tn, and through the Teskerti platform. Booking details had not been confirmed at the time of publication; audiences are advised to check the official site for updates.