Opera in the Italian Garden only started in 2008. Since then, the free Cultural Gardens concert has become one of the premier arts events of the summer. A little more than 200 people attended the concert the first year. Last year, attendance for a night of classical music and dance in the lovely garden had grown by tenfold. There were 2,473 attendees for the outside night at the opera, according to executive director Joyce Mariani.

This year's concert will bring the Cleveland Opera to the neoclassical garden that stretches between East Boulevard and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard at 6 p.m. Sunday. For the second year, the singers will be joined by dancers from the new Cleveland Ballet.