Terme di Caracalla

In 1937 don Piero Colonna, governor of Rome, announced to the press the first lyric season at the Baths of Caracalla, and entrusted the art management to Rome's "Teatro Reale dell'Opera". The great project linked to the political and cultural idea of the government to bring “theatre to crowd” offering to audience a qualified opera season with moderate prices, and launching both the diffusion of italian music and theatre and the archaeological and architectonic sites usually unknown and barely used. The necessity of musical performance in open air was testified by the great success of the summer shows, like the symphonic concerts of “Accademia di Santa Cecilia” in the Massenzio's Basilica, or the experiences of the ancient Arena in Verona and the Castello Sforzesco in Milan. For Rome was chosen an evocative and suggestive site: the Baths of Caracalla, an enormous complex of ruins in the heart of the city, the ancient Thermae Antoninianae started by the emperor Septimius Severus at the beginning of third century but completed and inaugurated in 217 by his successor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Caracalla from whom took its name. The arena was designed and built by Pericle Ansaldo and was placed in a side hall next to the Tepidarium, with a 22 meters proscenium and 8000 seats. "Lucia di Lammermoor" conducted by Oliviero de Fabritiis inaugurated the first summer season at Caracalla the night of 1 August 1936 with an outstanding cast: Beniamino Gigli e Toti Dal Monte.

The experimental season was restrain and just three plays of Lucia and two of Tosca were produced, but it was an amazing success both for turnout and critics, and the summer season was reconfirmed for the next year increasing the number of productions. Structures were totally renovated to fix acoustic and visibility problems and to accommodate up to a bigger audience. The stage was aligned to central axis of the baths and it was situated between the two colossal propylaea of the calidarium, used as suggestive wings, and the stalls area was transferred in the gardens enlarging the capacity to 20.000. Media baptised the new opan-air theatre “Arena of Twenty-Thousand”.

Aida by Giuseppe Verdi is certainly the most characteristic show of the baths, indissolubly linked to roman summer nights, and since the first spectacular performance in 1938 with Beniamino Gigli and Ebe Stignani has become the opera symbol of the arena. So much that the writer Giorgio Vigolo has coined for the Baths of Caracalla the name “Aideum”. The great classic of Italian melodrama is perfectly suited to majestic stagings with faraonic marches and suggestive scenographies, well harmonized with the roman ruins that work as backstage.

The opera was performed season after season consecutively for many years collecting more than fifty productions until now; and if it's easy criticize the restrain repertoire, it must be underlined the enduring success of the play, always committed to high level singers and conductors. The rule of the main characters were played by italian and international singers like Maria Pedrini, Anita Cerquetti, Antonietta Stella,Virginia Zeani, Eva Marton, Leona Mitchell, Aprile Millo, Micaela Carosi, Fiorenza Cossotto, Giulietta Simionato, Mario Del Monaco, Franco Corelli, Carlo Bergonzi, Nicola Martinucci, Gino Bechi, Giulio Neri, Tito Gobbi, Aldo Protti, Raffaele Ariè, Nicola Ghiuselev.

World War II stopped the summer opera season, the manifestation was suspended through 1944 and the archeologiac area was transformed in market gardens. The reopening of the summer season during the english menagement of the “Teatro dell'Opera di Roma” was a triumph, even if the majestic “Arena of Twenty-Thousand” was dismantle to create a new halved parquet. From 1945, for about fifty consecutive years, the Baths of Caracalla stood as an extremely important landmark for musical culture as well as perhaps the most fascinating setting dedicated to open-air theaters. International renowed singers performed at Caracalla, like Giacomo Lauri Volpi, Fedora Barbieri, Magda Oliviero, Alfredo Kraus, Monserrat Caballé, Placido Domingo, José Carreras, and also high level directors including Ottavio Ziino, Ferruccio Scaglia, Franco Capuana, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Giuseppe Patané, Zubin Metha.

Famous singer, world-class directors and etoiles of classic ballet have trodden the scene of Caracalla, but the peculiar majesty of open air productions it was often enhanced by large and small animals, unaware actors that surprise and amaze each kind of public. Elephants never appear on stage, whatever every summer people say, but the baths have seen horses, camels and even lions! The great popular show originally directed at the crowd, have attracted also personalities from show business and politic, well-known actor and every kind of VIP, that stick with the crowd -with no boxes to separate- enjoying the charm of the play. Caracalla is a standing appointment in hot summer nights for both presidents and Hollywood stars, romans and tourist, that arrive from every corner of the world filling up the arena to taste as best as possible their “Vacanze Romane”.

Many stars and etoiles of classical ballet have danced under the starry sky of Caracalla, accompanied by the “Ballet Company of Rome's Teatro dell'Opera”. Dance became a standing appointment every year since the first performance in 1939 season with Coppelia conducted by Nino Sanzogno with the “prima ballerina” Attilia Radice and Ugo Dell'Ara, choreographed by Aurel Milloss. The ballet company, separated in postwar period from the ballet school, it was directed by illustrious maestros: Aurell Milloss, Anton Dolin, Erik Bruhn, André Prokovski, Maya Plissetskaya, Vladimir Vassiliev, Elisabetta Terabust, Amodeo Amodio, Carla Fracci and today by the etoile Eleonora Abbagnato. In the repertoire are great traditional ballet, gala evening and contemporary dance, in collaboration with well-know choreographers like Roland Petit, Leonide Massine, Vaslav Nijinski, John Cranko, Antonio Gades, Jose Limon, Rudolf Nureyev, Lindsay Kemp.

In 1993 a ministerial decree on the protection of the archaeological sites of the country has imposed the interruption of the plays to restore the Thermae Antoninianae and to secure the structures, mistreated for years by scene sets and by the scant regard for roman ruins. For eight year the theatre did't give up on the traditional summer season, an integral part of theatre and city life, and research alternative and improvised solutions for his open-air productions (like Villa Borghese or the Stadio Olimpico). Performances at Caracalla were resumed just in 2001, with a new concession and a renovated structural arrangement. Stage, arena and services were moved from the traditional position to the area in front of the calidarium, keeping just the propylea as a background. The new arena is the right balance between the necessity of preservation and safeguard archaeological sites, the duty of utilize and propagate knowledge and respect, and the will to keep offer to romans and strangers the suggestive show of the opera at the Terme di Caracalla.