Le Muse
Theatre came back to life beyond all expectations: to the sound of the
Philharmonic Orchestra of La Scala conducted by Riccardo Muti.
(…)
Event-day. The inauguration day began at ten o’clock in the morning, to the
sound of a band playing the Italian National Anthem, Mameli’s Hymn. More
than six thousand people swarmed through the theatre until one in the
afternoon. The theatre refurbishment cost a total of 30 million Euros and took
20 years altogether. Visitors admired the great hall (a blend of fired bricks
originating from the Marche, hollow bricks, cement, larch-wood and African
walnut-wood) flanked according to project architects Danilo Guerri, Paola
Salmoni and Francesco Zaupa by reproductions of the ashlar-work arches of the
theatre’s neoclassical façade designed by Ghinelli of Senigallia and
inaugurated in 1827.The monumental neoclassical
façade and the antique columns, the entrance double-flight staircase and the
lobby on the first floor are all original features. The remainder is brand new.
(…) The boxes have been replaced with loggias. The stage is 360 square metres
in size, along with the proscenium (another 30 m2). There is seating
for 1057, distributed between the stalls and the three circles in a kind of
piazza that ideally stretches out towards the sea (…). And then there’s the
beautiful fireproof stage curtain, brimming with symbolic and theatrical
suggestions, accomplished by the sculptor Valeriano Trubbiani”.
(…) And
then the concert. (…) Surprisingly, Muti raised his baton to Mameli’s Hymn
and the spectators, all on their feet, had difficulty in repressing their
enthusiasm and excitement. (…) At the end of the concert (overture of Rossini’s
William Tell, Stravinskij’s Le baiser de la fée, and Tchaikovsky’s Fifth
Symphony) and before granting an encore with Verdi’s La forza del destino,
Muti spoke of the importance of theatres (…) Above all else “it is very
important that this theatre has been reopened” while it is “a kind of disgrace”
that so many appeals by artists for greater attention to the world of culture
remain unheard. (…) “Because even Shakespeare
states that without music, men are mere animals”
Seated in
the front rows, beside the mayor of Ancona,
Fabio Sturani, and various authorities from the Region, Donatella
Girombelli, chairman of the Committee of Honour, the tenor Franco Corelli,
Ornella Vanoni, Cesare Romiti, Beppe Modenese and Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio.
(news
reports taken from articles in various newspapers)
