World Travel Guide

City Guide  - Rome  - Culture
Culture

While Rome's cultural life is hampered by the vagaries of political squabbling and its inhabitants' lack of passion in the arts, there is nonetheless a frisson to be gained from watching a play seated on the hard, cold stone of an ancient amphitheatre in starlight.

Rome's one and only official arts centre, the Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Via Nazionale 194 (tel: (06) 474 5903; website: www.palaexpo.com), combines cinema with dance and exhibition space, lecture hall and all-important bar and roof-garden restaurant - in Rome, everything is a social experience. Those determined to sample something less conservative should seek out the Centri Sociali - hosting the most radical concerts, films, theatre and dance events that Rome has to offer.

Tickets are in demand and many are for subscribers only, so it is important to rush to the box office with cash (not credit card) in hand some days prior to the performance. Price start at around L30,000. Ticket agencies may save hassle. Box Office, Via Giulio Cesare 88 (tel: (06) 372 0216), or Orbis, Piazza Esquilino 37 (tel: (06) 482 7403), provide tickets for concerts, theatre and sporting events.

Music: Rome has great plans for Renzo Piano's new auditorium, but these look set to remain plans for the foreseeable future. In the meantime, the classical musical scene bases its reputation on two academies: the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and the Accademia Filarmonica.

Rome's principal and most prestigious academy, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (tel: (06) 6880 1044) stages its own concert or hosts visiting orchestras at Auditorio Pio, Via della Conciliazione 4, year-round, and in the beautiful Renaissance courtyard of Villa Giulia, Piazzale di Villa Giulia 9, in the summer. The Academia Filarmonica performs from mid-October to mid-May at the Teatro Olimpico, Piazza Gentile da Fabriano, Flaminio (tel: (06) 326 5991) on Thursday evenings. Rossini and Verdi were once members of this academy (founded in 1821), that offers a varied programme of chamber music, opera and contemporary music.

The Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Via Beniamino Gigli (tel: (06) 481 601; website: www.opera.roma.it), dominates the opera scene. The season runs from November to May. The box office opens two days before each performance.

Free concerts (choral, chamber and organ recitals) are held in churches - including Sant'Ignazio, San Giovanni de' Fiorentini, San Giovanni and Santa Maria Maggiore - during the summer months.

Theatre: The season runs from October to May. The city's official troop, the Teatro di Roma, is based at the prestigious Teatro Argentina, Largo di Torre Argentina 52 (tel: (06) 6880 4601; website: www.teatrodiroma.net), which hosts lavish productions directed by renowned directors.

The Teatro Nazionale, Via del Viminale 51 (tel: (06) 4816 0255), is the permanent home of the Italian Theatre Board (ETI) which puts on light and fluffy comedies. Musical comedies are performed at the fashionable Teatro Sistina, Via Sistina 129 (tel: (06) 420 0711). Classical works are performed in the Teatro Valle, Via del Teatro Valle 23A (tel: (06) 6880 3794), and in the ETI-owned Teatro Quirino, Via Marco Minghetti 1 (tel: (06) 679 4585), whose varied programme includes the classics, contemporary work and Commedia dell'Arte. Fringe theatre is well represented at the Vascello, Via Giacinto Carini 72, Monteverde (tel: (06) 588 1021).

Best of all are the open-air performances, held over summer in the lovely park, Giardino degli Aranci, Via di Santa Sabina, Aventino. Other venues are the Anfiteatro della Quercia del Tasso, Passeggiata del Gianicolo (tel: (06) 575 0827; website: www.anfiteatroquerciadeltasso.com), with stunning city views over the city, and the Teatro Romano di Ostia Antica, the Roman amphitheatre in Ostia Antica. Information and booking numbers are advertised on posters.

Dance: The Rome Opera Ballet performs at the Teatro dell'Opera (see above) where the regular diet of classical ballet is enriched with guest performances of internationally renowned dancers. The Teatro Olimpico has a strong dance season, ranging from classical to contemporary. Tickets for dance productions at the Teatro Argentina are snapped up, so early booking is advised.

Film: Italy's grand history in film has been centred in Rome since the Cinecittą (Cinema City), Via Tuscolana 1, was opened by Mussolini in 1937. Scenes from Anthony Minghella's The English Patient and Jane Campion's Portrait of a Lady were filmed in these studios but Italian cinema has failed to match the flowering of the 1940s, 50s and 60s. Among the greats are Rossellini's Open City (1946) and Vittorio De Sica's The Bicycle Thief (1948), depicting a harsh but touching picture of post-war Rome. Equally popular, but highly romanticised, was Jean Negulesco's Three Coins in the Fountain (1954), centering on the quest for love and the Trevi Fountain, and Audrey Hepburn's Oscar-winning performance as a besotted princess in Roman Holiday (1953). However, it is Fellini's films - Roma (1972) and La Dolce Vita (1959) - that have stamped images of Rome indelibly on the movie-goer's mind.

Rome is blessed with over 80 cinemas, whose numbers are increasing all the time. Tickets cost about L12,000; prices are often reduced for matinee performances. The recently refurbished Pasquino, Piazza S. Egidio 10, Trastevere (tel: (06) 5833 3310), shows English-language films daily, as does Quirinetta, Via Minghetti 4 (tel: (06) 679 0012). Films are shown in their original language on Monday evening at Alcazar, Via Merry del Val 14 (tel: (06) 588 0099). Azzurro Scipioni, Via degli Scipioni 82 (tel: (06) 3973 7161), shows Italian classics and modern experimental films.

Many cinemas close for the summer but there are numerous open-air showings, including Cineporto, Parco della Farnesina, close to the Olympic Stadium (tel: (06) 3600 5556), and Massenzio, which changes venue annually (tel: (06) 4281 5714; website: www.massenzio.it). Weekly showings and details of film festivals are set out in Roma C'č.

Cultural events: Each summer, from June through August, Estate Romana (website: www.estateromana.caltanet.it) offers a lively schedule of outdoor cultural events around the city. As home to the Vatican, religious celebrations are important here. The Pope makes an annual appearance at the Colosseum on Good Friday evening, and delivers Midnight Mass at St Peter's on Christmas Eve.

Literary Notes
There is nothing like Ovid's Ars Amatoria (Art of Love) for bringing Rome to life, with its vivid depiction of a trip to the Colosseum, site of flirtation and grandiose spectacle. Those interested in political intrigue may turn to I Claudius and Claudius the God (1934) Robert Graves' portrayal of ancient Rome, or the more measured tones of Gibbon's History and Decline of the Roman Empire. The dramatic poetry of Virgil's Aeneid, written in 19BC, evokes the glory of the Roman Empire, blessed and cursed by the Gods.

The Romantics had a soft spot for Rome. The tragic tale of Beatrice Cenci, beheaded in 1599 outside Castel Sant'Angelo for plotting to kill the father who had raped her, inspired Shelley's play The Cenci (1886). Rome, of course, was the place where Keats breathed his last.



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