Colossal Nero rock opera debuts in Rome

(ANSA) - Rome, June 7 - 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.