The Secrets of the Great Italian Opera Houses (Episode 3): Verona Arena

Once upon a time there was Verona, the Roman Verona. This Verona, however, had not foreseen the construction of an amphitheater in its building plan. At a certain point it was realized, it was said, we have to do something, we have to build it. And then the defensive walls, the walls of Cinta, were also modified. A very large amphitheater was born, the famous Arena di Verona. Why is it called Arena? It's simple, in an amphitheater there is a flat part, which is located in the center, surrounded by large steps, which are the cavea. And in this central flat part, where today if you go to the Arena di Verona, there are the seats of the audience, for the spectators of the audience, well, this flat part was covered with sand. And in Latin, sand is called arena. So if we quote the Arena di Verona, we could also say that it is the sand of Verona. This very famous amphitheater, which in 2000, almost 2000 years, because it was built between 60 and 80 AD, so almost 2000 years, hosted a bit of everything. If you could be one of the greats of the Arena di Verona, I don't know how many things you would have to tell. You would have seen everything, you would have seen the naumachies, so the battles, the small naval battles. You would have seen, for example, the gladiators go down into the arena. You would have seen a lot of shows, circus shows. You would have attended a show that Napoleon Bonaparte loved very much, which was that of the bullfighting, which they made especially for him on the occasion of his two, at least, passages from Verona. And then, however, Verona is synonymous with the Arena di Verona, it is synonymous with lyrical opera, with a very important theatrical season, summer in the months of July and August, and the first of September. Well, but when music arrived at the Arena di Verona, among other things, there was really everything. They had burned heretics on the street, perhaps they had also previously been persecuted and martyred by Christians. But the music with which the first composer arrives, who writes music for the Arena di Verona, and who, in fact, brings a cantata to the stage and brings the music to the amphitheater, is Gioachino Rossini. Then you will hear the Elisir of Love by Donizetti. Then nothing until 1913. In 1913, an important date, it was the first centenary of the birth of Giuseppe Verdi. And then a singer, Giovanni Zenatello, a tenor of Verona origin, has this intuition, he remembers that in the past music was already made, but he creates life at a festival, at a lyrical festival that opens in 1913, under the auspices of Giuseppe Verdi, precisely of his works with Aida. Zenatello will also discover, it will be him, precisely him, to discover the voice of one of the greatest singers in history, Maria Callas. He listened to her in New York, where Zenatello had his office. He listened to this girl with an American passport, but of Greek family. He needed Gioconda, the main character of the opera by Ponchielli, to open the season 1947 of the Arena. And he listened to the voice of Maria Callas. He wrote immediately to Verona, I found it, it's her, it's perfect, she sings very well and it costs little. She has an unpronounceable name, Mary Ann Callo Geropolu, but we will do so, we will do Maria Callas, but not with the K, as the first reviewers wrote of the Gioconda by Ponchielli at the Arena of Verona. A season that was opened under the sign of destiny, because it had to start on August 1, 1947, with Faust by Charles Gounod, the Italian version, sung by Renata Tebaldi. But hell broke loose in heaven, a lot of rain, lightning in a storm, and the inauguration took place the next day, and Maria Callas opened the season 1947 of the Arena of Verona. A charming place to sing, we need special voices, we need a real arena voice. And Arturo Toscanini, what did he say about the Arena of Verona and the lyrical performances of music in the open? Now I won't tell you, you will find it in the article that we published in the course of this video. I tried in a few minutes to tell you the story of the most famous musical amphitheater in the world, the Arena of Verona.