The event was hosted by His Excellency The Rt Hon The Lord Edward Llewellyn OBE PC, Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Italy, The British Embassy in Rome.

Our CEO, Paul Atkin greatly appreciated the recognition granted to all of the team, both British and Italian, who work on the Teatro San Cassiano reconstruction project. Paul said:

“As much as this is a project for Venice and Venetians, I am forever English, and proudly so. In this sense, the opportunity to celebrate the service of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to my country is not only an honour, but it also serves to highlight that the reconstruction of the world’s first opera house in Venice is, and will always be, an Anglo-Italian project.

It’s well known that the great British love of Italian opera dates back to Händel’s eighteenth-century London. The reconstruction in Venice of the very theatre that started that “opera boom” is our opportunity to show our appreciation of what for my mind is Italy’s greatest export to the world.

Our team is made up of the best of Italy and the UK and we come together in the belief that is our shared values which unite us. There is no better example of this than opera: it celebrates all that we hold dear and strive to achieve. Together, we bring different skill sets that make the whole greater, stronger and better, and above all provide living proof that our shared culture and history matters. As we keep saying, ‘together we can make this happen’.”