Tag: theater
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Here is Where You Heard
After saying, “Arrivederci!” to our wonderful guests from the last week, I drove to Siracusa to meet my cousin and business partner Evelina and her close friends. This evening, we attended “Le Rane,” or “The Frogs,” a comedy by Aristophanes, written in 405 BCE. The ancient theater was full. Joyful theater goers, seemingly all Italian,…
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Play On The Beach
On Friday, June 23, as part of the “Le Forme di Telesis,” or The Shapes of Telesis, arts festival, “The Trojan Women” by Euripedes will be presented in the Parco Archeologico di Selinunte e Cave di Cusa in Castelvetrano. The interpretation, which will emphasize the plight of women immigrants, will be performed on the beach…
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The Phoenician Women in Siracusa
This weekend Experience Sicily’s Evelina Buttitta has made her annual pilgrimage to Siracusa to see classic theater in the Teatro Antico of the city’s archaeological park. Evelina took this photo featuring the production of Euripides’ “The Phoenician Women.” For just a few short weeks annually in May and June, you can experience ancient Greek theater…
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Teatro Massimo’s Gilded Echo Chamber
Teatro Massimo, Palermo’s opera house that opened in 1897, is a master work of Greek and Roman inspired architecture designed by Giovan Battista Filippo Basile (1825-1891). The interior frescoes of the theater were painted by artists Rocco Lentini, Ettore De Maria Bergler, Michele Cortegiani, and Luigi Di Giovanni, who likely brushed this detail I photographed…
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500 Years of Orlando’s Adventures
500 years ago, Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533), a poet from Reggio Emilia, a city in the region of Emilia-Romagna, published an epic poem titled “Orlando furioso.” Written in an archaic version of the Italian language (one that English speakers could compare to Chaucer), the poem chronicles the raging adventures and mishaps of the paladin (a…
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Theater to the Maximum: Teatro Massimo
After Paris and Vienna, Teatro Massimo is the third largest opera house in Europe (in terms of surface area), and the largest in Italy. Construction of the Giovanni Battista Basile neoclassical design started in 1875 and was completed in 1897 by his son Ernesto. When inside, it feels intimate and elegant. The acoustics are said…
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Your Literature Teacher Would Be Jealous
Experience Sicily’s Evelina Buttitta, along with some of my other cousins, made their annual pilgrimage to Siracusa this week to see theater in the Teatro Antico of the city’s archaeological park. Here’s a photo taken by Evelina of Sophocles’ “Electra.” For a few weeks in May and June each year, you can experience ancient Greek…
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It’s Show Time in Siracusa
Next week, the 52nd season of L’Istituto Nazionale del Dramma Antico (INDA) will raise the curtain (so to speak) in Siracusa. INDA has existed since 1914, and it presents ancient masterpieces of theater at Siracusa’s Teatro Antico — in the midst of the ancient Greek and Roman city’s archaeological park. This year’s series includes Sophocles’…