A rock opera production about the
Emperor Nero debuted Tuesday in the open-air Vigna Barberini
summer pavilion on the Palatine Hill, which covers part of the
archeological ruins of the Domus Aurea, Nero's "Golden House",
built after the Great Fire of 64 AD.
The show, titled "Divo Nerone Opera Rock" (Divine Nero Rock
Opera), has been two years in the making.
It took two hours for the 3,000 invitation-only spectators to
make their way walking down the Via Sacra towards the pavilion,
amid security checks and opening-night chaos and confusion.
Dubbed by producers as "the fieriest musical in history", the
show features Giorgio Adamo as Nero, singing and dancing for
over two hours with a cast of 26 dancers and 12 musical actors.
The show is a production of screenwriter and two-time Grammy
Award winner Franco Migliacci with director Gino Landi.
It has a highly decorated team of professionals at the helm
including three-time Oscar winner Dante Ferretti as art
designer, three-time Oscar winner Francesca Lo Schiavo as set
decorator, Oscar winner Gabriella Pascucci as costume designer,
and Oscar winner Luis Enriquez Bacalov providing special musical
assistance.
Behind the scenes more than 100 technicians work the sets,
which are in continual movement and include special effects such
as big-screen projections inspired by the Coenatio Rotunda,
Nero's famed rotating dining room in the Domus Aurea that
followed the movement of the sun.
The show depicts the last 14 years of Nero's life, starting
in 53 AD when the ambitious Agrippina (played by Rosalia
Misseri) pulls Nero away from his artistic dreams and entrusts
him to Seneca (played by Giosuè Tortorelli), a move that
eventually leads him to the emperor's throne after a series of
intrigues and murders.
Opening-night invited guests included Italian luminaries such
as Italian-Uruguayan actor Luca Barbareschi; Italian actress
Monica Guerritore and her husband politician Roberto Zaccaria;
Italian fashion designer Renato Balestra; Italian journalists
Cesara Buonamici, Roberto D'Agostino, and Gianni Letta;
politician and former Rome mayor Francesco Rutelli; and Rome
Councillor for Economic Development, Tourism and Trade Adriano
Meloni.
The show is performed in English every day with one
performance a week in Italian on Saturdays, and runs through
September 10.
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