The U Sciaratu is Monaco’s big carnival-style festival. This year, it’s made all the more special by the centenary celebrations of Prince Rainier III and a circus theme in his honour.
Set to take place on Friday 7th July from 6.30pm up on the Rock, the night will feature a mini circus show with fire eaters and stilts walkers. Giant bubbles and balloon sculptors will be on hand to entertain young party goers while the Grand Bal of the festival, from 10pm, will be the likely destination for the older crowd. Head to the Place de la Mairie to get involved!
In the past, the focus was on disguise: women dressed as men and men dressed at women. It was a riotous party, with food fights and the burning of a straw-and-rags figure on the terrace of the Palace.
U Sciaratu was typically held in the late winter or early spring, and was a mainstay on the Monaco social calendar for centuries, but has been held later in recent years so that the many tourists visiting the Principality can join in with this bit of history.
The event is totally free and open to all, Monaco residents and visitors to the Principality alike.
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Photo source: Mairie de Monaco
Summer camps and activity days in and around Monaco
Your Monaco Life guide to all the amazing children’s summer camps and daytime activities in the Principality of Monaco and beyond.
The school holidays are almost upon us in Monaco. In a few short days, the kids will be “out for summer” until La Rentrée on 11th September. Here are some ideas that will keep your children busy and entertained this July and August.
The world of water
The Yacht Club de Monaco is running a jam-packed summer programme, with various camps for children aged between six and 17. “In, on and under the water” is the theme of the very diverse list of activities that will give kids a true taste of the sea and the adventures it can offer. Early reservations were reserved for members, but now the registration process has been opened up to all wanting to try out sailing and more at this iconic institution.
Kids can live out their Luca and Ariel dreams with the Académie Monégasque de la Mer’s two-months-worth of scuba diving, snorkelling and lifesaving workshops aboard the Pirates Of The Abyss catamaran. The price is €530 per week.
More at sea action can be found at the Société Nautique de Monaco, which is hosting a coastal rowing camp this summer for 10 to 15-year-olds. Various dates are available and the cost is €275 a week, including a daily lunch at the club’s restaurant.
Learn to row alongside the professionals. Photo source: Société Nautique de Monaco
Music, dance and circus arts
Mini acrobats from four and up can hone their circus skills at the Chapiteau de Fontvielle, the very home of the famous Monte-Carlo Circus Festival, and test out everything from the trapeze to aerial hoops and silks. Four weekly courses have been organised, but there are also flexi-options available for kids who want to do half-days. Click here for more information.
It’s gymnastics galore down at the Salles de Gymnastique Princesse Stéphanie, which will be holding two separate stages from 3rd to 7th July and 10 to 14th July. The sessions will all take place between 10am and noon. Click here for more information.
For the highly dedicated dancers of Monaco, the Ballets de Monte-Carlo will be hosting several stages over the summer that also serve as auditions for those hoping to get into the Académie Princesse Grace the following school year. Students must be between 11 and 19 to apply. Click here to learn more.
The 2023 graduates of the Académie Princesse Grace. Photo source: Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo
The seven weeks of musical instruction on offer this summer, just up the road in Beausoleil, will be music to the ears of avid musicians. Click here for dates and prices.
Classic sports
Roca Team fans won’t believe their ears when they hear about the AS Monaco Basketball camp: on-court play with the captain of the team, Yakuba Ouattara. Two separate weeks are available in early July, but places are limited so get in touch with the organisers now if you want to secure a spot!
Tennis stars of the future will love the mixed sessions at the Monte-Carlo Country Club. The morning “Tennis & Piscine” course is open to four to 14-year-olds and costs €223 for members of the prestigious clubs, while non-members will have to pay a little more. Beginner tennis classes for the youngest players, aged three to seven, will also be on offer from 3rd to 11th August for two hours in the afternoon. This costs €150 for a week of instruction for members or €192 for non-members. Click here for more information on both stages.
Tennis for kids as young as three at the Monte-Carlo Country Club. Photo source: MCCC
The Monte-Carlo Squash Racket Club will be hosting a number of different camps at the Stade Louis II for seven to 11-year-olds, including table tennis, badminton and, of course, squash. Call 06 63 60 01 68 for more information on dates and times. Reservations can be made directly at squashresa98@gmail.com.
Afternoon activities
It’s going to be a very busy summer over at the Centre de la Jeunesse Princesse Stéphanie (CJPS) on Avenue Papalins with an afternoon programme of activities on themes such as adventure, pirates, superheros and travel planned throughout July and August. The sessions are held from 2pm to 7pm on weekdays and are a very affordable €10 per day.
Outdoor adventures
The CJPS is also offering longer stays away for eight to 16-year-olds via its mountain summer camps in the Champsaur region. Tweens and teens can partake in everything from bike riding to treetops adventures and watersports while getting some of that much-appreciated independence from their parents. The camps are organised in collaboration with Monaco’s Department of Social Welfare and Social Services and may be part-financed for some families. The two-week trips cost €815 or €855 depending on the age of the child.
Similarly, but for a slightly different age group and in another mountainous location, La Boite de Jeux is organising a two-week-long stay in a dedicated chalet in the Orcières Valley near Gap for seven to 14-year-olds between 8th and 22nd July. Prices start at €700 for a camp that includes access to tonnes of activities, sports and experiences.
Further afield, there are many different summer camps and activity days being laid on by Nature Essentielle in the Alpes-Maritimes, from overnight camping trips to Pelagos-backed sea voyages and mountain adventures. Click here to discover the full list.
The wonders of the southern Alps await with Nature Essentielle adventures. Photo source: Nature Essentielle
Monegasque table tennis player Xiaoxin Yang narrowly missed out on gold in the third edition of the European Games in Poland on Tuesday.
Fresh from her gold medal in the Games of the Small States of Europe in Malta earlier this month, Yang was within touching distance of securing another gold this week, this time in Krakow, Poland.
The top-ranked women’s singles player made light work of getting through to Tuesday’s final in the Polish capital, but came out on the wrong side of an epic final against Romania’s Bernadette Szocs.
A fatal fifth set
Yang looked dominant in the opening exchanges, racing into a 2-0 lead (11-4, 11-7) before Szocs hit back. However, having won the third set, Monaco were just one set away from gold, and having raced into a 4-0 lead, Yang could almost taste victory.
However, it was in this fifth set that the tables turned, and having won the fifth set (13-11), Szocs then stunned her opponent, overturning the deficit and winning 4-3 to take gold.
Yang, therefore, had to settle for silver, and post-match reflected on her narrow defeat.
“In the fifth set, I saw the victory in sight and so I gave my opponent a chance to come back into the match. Through this defeat, I will progress,” she said.
Photo credit: Stéphan Maggi
The silver medal was placed around Yang’s neck by Yvette Lambin Berti, Secretary General of the Monegasque Olympic Committee, who described the performance as “historic and unprecedented”.
In spite of the obvious disappointment, Yang will be motivated by her displays in Poland, adding further competition confidence to the Monegasque with just a year to go until the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Monaco Rugby Sevens, the champions of France, have added a first European title to their trophy cabinet with victory in Prague over the weekend.
Jérémy Aicardi led his side, who hadn’t competed as a team since being crowned French champions in Paris back in November, to success in the Czechian capital.
176 points scored in one day
Les Monégasques, even in the absence of captain Johan Demai-Hamecher, were imperious throughout the tournament, blowing aside each opponent as they came. Monaco scored 176 points on the first day of competition across three matches (53-0, 50-5, 73-0).
Photo source: Monaco Rugby Sevens
On the second day of competition, a 52-5 victory against Czech Development was followed up by a 47-7 victory against NZ Ambassadors XV. By the final, it was clear that Aicardi’s side were unparalleled in the tournament, and so it proved as Monaco beat Italian champions Nati Scombinati (22-7) to lift the Prague Rugby Sevens trophy and take home a cheque of €3,000.
A Monegasque in the lineup
The dominance displayed by Monaco was even more impressive given the absence of stars, as well as the integration of new players. Monegasque Ian-Sören Cabioch was rewarded for his form during the Games of the Small States of Europe with a call-up, as well as his victory with the Monaco Impis during the Melrose Sevens tournament earlier this year.
Attention now turns towards retaining their French crown. Monaco will soon begin preparing for the next edition of the In Extenso Rugby Sevens, which begins in Clermont-Ferrand on 15th September before stages in Lyon (22nd September) and Pau (29th September).
For her second season at the helm of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, Cecilia Bartoli has curated a schedule filled with passion, history, romance, glamour and some celebrity appearances…
Cecilia Bartoli has definitely made the Opéra de Monte-Carlo her own if judging by the release of the upcoming 2023/24 season.
The line-up of incredible shows features multiple styles of performance, plentiful top talent and enough surprises to delight die-hard fans and make critics of the art form think again.
The excitement for the new season can be summed up in the words of Princess Caroline of Hanover, the president of the OPMC: “You made us dream, Madam Director, when you presented the 2023 season of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, and we cannot but observe that the result lived up to expectations, and even exceeded them. Your second season is already approaching. I have had the pleasure of exploring it at your side and it arouses in me as much enthusiasm, if not more, than the first one.”
It is glowing praise indeed for Bartoli, who is clearly looking forward to another stellar season in the Principality come November.
Cecilia Bartoli on stage at the Opéra de Monte Carlo
What to expect from the next season at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo
The season opener, on 2nd November, is a choral concert featuring Guiseppe Verdi’s Messa da Requiem that was written for the poet Alessandro Manzoni in 1874. Like Verdi’s Don Carlo and Aida, Requiem is a haunting and powerful work, described by a German conductor of the time as “an opera in ecclesiastical robes”. Daniel Barenbaum will conduct.
Next up is an homage to the legendary Neapolitan tenor Enrico Caruso on 19th November. This invitation-from-the-Palace-only event comes on the 150th anniversary of the birth of the great singer, who has ties with the Principality, having performed here in 1902 before going on to become a superstar in America. The show features actor Alfonso Antoniozzi and conductor Antonio Pappano. Davide Livermore will direct the performance.
Over three nights – 22nd, 24th and 26th November – the Opéra will perform the Verdi classic Don Carlo from 1867. This mighty opera filled with deep characters is one of his most regarded and adored pieces. Davide Livermore will direct while Massimo Zanetti conducts.
The Christmas season will see the Opéra perform one of the most recognisable and beloved musicals of all time, Phantom of the Opera, from 16th to 31st December. It will star Ramin Karimloo and Amelia Milo, with Federico Bellone directing.
Into 2024…
To start off 2024, Gianluca Capuano will conduct Davide Livermore’s production of Giulio Cesare in Egitto, the Georg Friedrich Handel masterpiece from 1724. The opera runs four nights in January: 24th, 26th, 28th and 30th.
Welcome in the New Year in true style at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo
On 29th January, the moving Johannes Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem comes to the stage as a choral concert. First performed in 1869 to honour the deaths of two of the composer’s closest loved ones, the modern version will be skillfully rendered by Regula Mühlemann and Simon Keenlyside, while Gianluca Capuano conducts.
To open the Bal de la Rose on 23rd March, Bartoli herself will be joined on stage by world-renowned concert pianist Lang Lang for a recital of pieces by Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini and others; a true experience by amazing talents.
And to end the season will be a special staged concert where Bartoli will perform with the celebrated American actor John Malkovich in a world premiere co-production with Printemps des Arts de Monte-Carlo entitled Their Master’s Voice. The show will see music by Händel, Porpora and Vivaldi, among others, brought to life by two masters of the stage.
Subscribe to the Opéra for priority bookings
Subscriptions to the Opéra de Monte-Carlo are available, giving priority booking, seating and a first chance for tickets to the Bartoli-Lang gala recital as well as many other benefits. For more information, to book or to see the schedule in its glorious entirety, click here.
Mada One’s al fresco summer offshoot, Mada Lounge, is set to open for the summer this coming Saturday.
The lounge bar will be set up in the Jardins des Boulingrins opposite the Casino de Monte-Carlo in an oasis of verdant greenery that makes for the perfect holiday atmosphere. It’s the ideal spot to go with friends and family for some music and drinks before or after dinner.
Mada Lounge combines the signature Mada One flair with a range of refreshing drinks and cocktails as well as live music and DJs to bring the party vibe. On the summer programme: Florent Cheraki and Rebecca Ollier, Micael and Tchai Sene, Anthony & Mariana, The Bossa Nova Project, Mandy & Norbert, and Nadia New Bogard.
The open-air bar will be open throughout July and August, Wednesday to Sunday from 5pm until 11pm.
