THE OPERA or rather the theatre
General considerations
THE OPERA. What is the OPERA?
The opera house is everything!
The architecture of the opera house is everything!
Within the walls of the OPERA, in front of and behind its curtain, inside and around its proscenium, below and above its stage, all the possible matters of form, that a designer can face during his whole existence, are enclosed and condensed. And if on the one hand, the wonder of the theatrical performance lies in the complex articulation and overlapping of words, sounds and images, on the other hand, it is the "magic box" of the OPERA that allows its existence, that bridles the infinite weave of unveilings and concealments that structure it. In other words, the theatrical building, with its imposing volume, with its vast and sometimes very small rooms, with its labyrinthine paths, with its articulated mechanisms of the scene and with its equally complex systems of masking all that is functional, is the first and most sublime theatrical setting that man can imagine.
With a small detail that makes unique and very risky this kind of staging a show: its being a poetic text that will be repeated, without any different interpretations, in a well-defined space and for an infinite time.
It is definitely evident that while an unsuccessful opera, a not working screenplay or a not touching symphony may not be represented nor performed, or in other words, if they are allowed to fall into oblivion with small consequences, the OPERA building, once realized and set up, remains there in big type on the billboard of the city urban events, stuck in the heart and spirit of its inhabitants forever and ever. This means that the architect has a great, not to say very great, responsibility in conceiving the form and realising it together with all the other professionals.
The theme
On the one hand, the choice of proposing, in the fourth year of the degree course in Architecture, the design theme of the opera house, puts the student in front of what is maybe the most complex architectural theme. On the other, it offers the extraordinary possibility of systematically facing a variety of compositional, figurative, scientific, etc. subjects that other functional programs will certainly contain but never in such an explicit and integrated form. After all, there is no other kind of architecture, if not that of the OPERA, able to meaningfully question about light, visibility, sound, statics, mechanics, ergonomics, etc. while continuously referring to other forms of art. Of course, the risk is that the student gets lost in the complexity of the program, being confused by the many external inputs, without finding the right formal synthesis to face the theme through the form.
We believe that this risk is largely averted by the solidity of the documentation they have at their disposal and, not least, by the ability that, thanks to our knowledge of the theme, we will have to accompany them step by step in the development of the concept and the "final" project. And in this sense, for a more concrete teaching experience, and closer to the issues that the design of an opera house involves, a series of lectures are planned, held by the main technical professionals which for specific expertise have contributed to the design and construction of various theatrical machines.
To consistently carry out the project of the Abruzzo Opera House will be certainly hard for all of us, a kind of limit experience (as it happens when dealing with creation and art) but this and nothing else is what we are committed to do. Whether we like it or not... and despite everything.
The project area
The area taken into consideration coincides with the block of the former Cogolo factories, in the industrial area. The lot of about eight hectares is located in the centre of a vast area of industrial plants developed between Via Tiburtina and the so-called "Asse Attrezzato" (equipped axis), which is currently affected by a wide dynamics of divestment. The surrounding residential building is characterized by phenomena of urban and social degradation that have recently required the planning of a series of national and European programs (Urban, Neighborhood Contract, Urban Free Zone) aimed at the social and economic recovery of the area through public works and interventions. The presence of infrastructural corridors (railway line Pescara - Rome, Asse Attrezzato and Circonvallazione), of the airport and the S. Marco station make this area an easily accessible and strategically important hub, in a vast metropolitan area that tends more and more to reverse the peripheral role given to it by the structure.