Newly-appointed director of the Music Biennale Lucia Ronchetti promised it and it is no surprise that, while her first year has yet to clock in, we already know who the Lions will be awarded to. The 66th edition of the Music Biennale of Venice bears the motto Out of Stage, and will take place on September 14 to 25, 2022. It will be all about experimental musical theatre. It is even less surprising that the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement will be awarded to Giorgio Battistelli, a composer that has been working chiefly on theatre music since the 1970s, and whose work is renowned worldwide. One work as an example: Experimentum Mundi of 1981, a piece of imaginative music for one actor, eight female voices, sixteen craftsmen, and one drummer. Experimentum Mundi has been staged over 400 times all over the world, and is considered a staple of instrumental musical theatre. It will be produced at Biennale, too, with Battistelli himself directing. We should also add that Battistelli had been Music Biennale director in 2005, and dedicated the edition entirely to musical theatre. It goes without saying that the 2022 award is very well deserved. Coincidentally, the programme at the Rome Opera will open with Battistelli’s Julius Caesar, directed by Robert Carsen and conducted by Daniele Gatti. This is not the first time Battistelli and Carsen work on Shakespearean theatre. It will be another great piece by Battistelli, his Jules Verne of 1987, top open the 66th Music Biennale.