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It is one of the best preserved ancient structures of its kind. In ancient times, the arena's capacity was nearly 30,000 people. The stage for concerts and opera performances decreases the available capacity to a maximum of 22,000.[1]
Amphitheatre
The Verona Arena's ring remnant that survived the 1117 earthquake
The building itself was built in AD 30 on a site which was then beyond the city walls. The ludi (shows and games) staged there were so famous that spectators came from many other places, often far away, to witness them.[citation needed] The amphitheatre could host more than 30,000 spectators in ancient times.
The round facade of the building was originally composed of white and pink limestone from Valpolicella, but after a major earthquake in 1117, which almost completely destroyed the structure's outer ring, except for the so-called "ala" (wing), the stone was quarried for re-use in other buildings. Nevertheless, it impressed medieval visitors to the city, one of whom considered it to have been a labyrinth, without ingress or egress.[2]Ciriaco d'Ancona was filled with admiration for the way it had been built and Giovanni Antonio Panteo's civic panegyric De laudibus veronae, 1483, remarked that it struck the viewer as a construction that was more than human.[3]
Opera venue
The first interventions to recover the arena's function as an opera venue began during the Renaissance. Some operatic performances were later mounted in the building during the 1850s, owing to its outstanding acoustics.
In 1913, operatic performances in the arena commenced in earnest due to the zeal and initiative of the Italian opera tenor Giovanni Zenatello and the impresario Ottone Rovato. The first 20th-century operatic production at the arena, a staging of Giuseppe Verdi's Aida, took place on 10 August of that year, to mark the birth of Verdi 100 years before in 1813. The composers Puccini and Mascagni were in attendance. Since then, summer seasons of opera have been mounted continually at the arena, except in 1915–18 and 1940–45, when Europe was convulsed in war.
In modern times, at least four productions (sometimes up to six) are mounted each year between June and August. During the winter months, the local opera and ballet companies perform at the Teatro Filarmonico.
Modern-day travellers are advised that admission tickets to sit on the arena's stone steps are much cheaper to buy than tickets giving access to the padded chairs available on lower levels. Candles are distributed to the audience and lit after sunset around the arena.
Every year over 500,000 people see productions of the popular operas in this arena.[4] Once capable of housing 20,000 patrons per performance (now limited to 15,000 because of safety reasons), the arena has featured many of world's most notable opera singers. In the post-World War II era, they have included Giuseppe Di Stefano, Maria Callas, Tito Gobbi and Renata Tebaldi among other names. A number of conductors have appeared there, too. The official arena shop has historical recordings made by some of them available for sale.
The opera productions in the Verona Arena had not used any microphones or loudspeakers until a sound reinforcement system was installed in 2011.[5]
Arena di Verona Festival is a summer festival of opera, inaugurated in 1913 with Giuseppe Verdi's Aida, to celebrate the centenary of the artist's birth.
In 1981, 1984, 2010, 2019, and 2022, the arena hosted the podium and presentation of the Giro d'Italia.[7]
From 25 September 2021 to 4 October 2023, the venue hosted "Arena Suzuki", an Italian television program of a variety of musical genres, broadcast in prime time on Rai 1, and presented by Amadeus.[8]
^altum lambyrintum in quo nescitur ingressus et egressus, quoted in Roberto Weiss, The Renaissance Discovery of Classical Antiquity, 1969:117 and note 7.
