(Time.news) – The Greek Theater of Syracuse is in danger of disappearing, and Elisa, Claudio Baglioni and Gianna Nannini could be lending a hand to its ruin: in the coming months their audience, accustomed to stadiums and arenas, will overturn in an extremely vulnerable building which is 2,300 years old, with an impact of which no one at the moment knows the consequences but which greatly worries archaeologists and experts of cultural heritage.
“If on the one hand the president of the Region, Nello Musumeci, finds an installation of contemporary art in front of the temple of Segesta unfortunate, how can he find it normal to be held a rock concert in a 3rd century BC auditorium? “, he asks and wonders with the Time.news Fabio Carusoarchaeologist of the CNR, interpreting the anguish of several of his colleagues in the face of the announcement of a succession of pop and rock shows for the first time in total presence in the Theater.
“There is a very long diatribe – explains Caruso – on the use of ancient theatrical buildings, but I am disheartened, like many colleagues, when to our perplexities someone replies that concerts of this kind are also held at the Verona Arena and in the ancient theater of Taormina. There are two types of buildings: those high up and those carved into the rock. The Arena of Verona, among the first, underwent the first restorations even in the Renaissance; the same Theater of Taormina was, before the restoration of the steps in 1959, a ‘picking’ in the ground: that restoration was resumed, after use and abuse, a few years ago, and the steps are modern. The Greek Theater of Syracuse, on the other hand, is built in ‘negative’: dug entirely in the rock, in the soft, white limestone, and has very important inscriptions. Not all ancient theaters, therefore, are the same“.
“The Greek Theater of Syracuse – continues Caruso – is nowadays mainly used for the classical performances of the Inda, which has expert workers and knows what it is dealing with. Furthermore, a classical representation is part of the theater’s identity. And it has a Particular audience. In the case of a rock concert, such as Gianna Nannini’s, one must expect her audience to jump and dance on the steps while she sings ‘This love is a gas chamber’. I cannot understand what went through the minds of those who authorized this type of concerts The Greek Theater of Syracuse is fragile and ‘unrestored’, any damage due to abrasion to that theater is no longer recoverable. In Taormina we sit on the stones of 1960; in Syracuse the stones are from 2,300 years ago“.
“Furthermore – adds Caruso – I would like to know if the Syracuse Charter has been respected, that is the document that indicates the guidelines for the use of ancient buildings. It was defined, ironically or mockery of fate, in Syracuse in 2005 for initiative of the Regional Department of Cultural Heritage. Is it still valid or has it become waste paper? “
The “Charter of Syracuse for the conservation, use and management of ancient theatrical architectures” sets principles and rules in the awareness that “improper use has progressively accentuated the attacks” on an “inestimable cultural heritage”. “Each ancient place of entertainment is a case in itself for the history it has lived through, during its existence or from the moment it was brought to light up to today, and for the physical, socio-economic and cultural environment that surrounds it”, reads the Charter , which allows the use of ancient theaters only if “precise criteria” are respected, starting from the prior knowledge of the state of health of each of the parts of the cultural heritage: cavea, orchestra, stage building, acoustics.
“Since the use of an ancient monument – affirms the Charter – inevitably wears it out and can erase data useful for its correct historical and archaeological knowledge, the use of monuments that have not been studied and adequately documented cannot be allowed. can allow for monuments of proven vulnerability. In the remaining cases the sustainability of the use of the monument must be preliminarily studied by a multidisciplinary working group, especially in relation to the load regarding the number of admissible spectators without danger to them and damage to the ancient structures ” .
Years ago a committee of Syracusan citizens, led by the archaeologist Flavia Zisa, asked the Aretusean Superintendency for data on the state of health of the Greek Theater. They never came. “It is not the first time that there has been talk of opening these shows – says to Time.news Zisa, which in 2010 collected over 500 signatures in a ‘historic’ uprising against the invasion of Ferrari cars in the theater – and I am not against it. Rock may not be more invasive than melodic, but it is important to have data on the state of conservation of the monument available, which we cannot risk losing even for a flap of butterfly wings. decibel and resistance tests have been made; show the parameters within which the monument can withstand the impact of a given spectacle. And this is true both for the Greek theater and for Ortigia“.
Once an old building wound is inflicted, ‘doctors’ and ‘nurses’ arrive to treat it, but it is often too late to intervene. “I am aware of the suggestion linked to a choice – she explains to Time.news Belinda Giambra, Sicilian restorer engaged in the return to the community of important monuments of the island – but an ancient theater is not a suitable place for such initiatives both in terms of conservation of the asset and in terms of its identity. I worked in some temples of Paestum: the stone of those buildings, as Vitruvius wrote, was ‘seasoned’, with a process similar to wood: roughly hewn, exposed to the elements, preserved so that it developed its own porosity and then placed there where it had to be placed, with care and attention that not even a postcard could pass between the stone elements. The temples of the fifth century BC are like this: this is their sacredness “.