The weather here in Umbria has been pretty lousy this last ten days to the extent we decided to take off to Rome for a couple of days on Monday. We'd heard from a friend that there was a new show in town that everyone was talking about called "Michelangelo - Secrets of the Sistine Chapel" so before we set off, with no preconceptions or expectations. we booked a couple of tickets online for the English version of the show which was being shown at the Auditorio Conciliazione near the Vatican, on the evening of our arrival. This is a personal review of the experience!
We arrived at the venue, which we'd never been to before, half an hour before the 8pm show was due to begin. The building, inaugurated in 1950 as a multifunctional space for musical, cultural and artistic events, was obviously huge and we were amongst the earliest there. We presented our printed out e tickets to the smartly uniformed staff and Jon's scanned correctly, but mine didn't so it was a journey to the box office for assistance. Now this is Italy so there was a further excruciating ten minutes whilst bits of paper were perused, boxes ticked and computer screens stared at before finally a new ticket was issued. We were on our way!
The auditorium reminded me of the Prince Edward Theatre in London but on a grander scale. It was huge, austere, black and lined with banked rows of seats upholstered in red. The screen on the stage was illuminated with what you can see in the illustration below. I grumbled at the width of the seats - pefect for small Italian frames, but no good for the likes of big chaps like me and Jon. It was interesting watching people arrive, an odd mixture of couples, groups of friends, families and even the odd catholic priest or two. Needless to say - they were still arriving at the start time so it was another ten minutes before things got going.
The show began fairly ordinarily with some film footage of Rome working backwards from now until finally, using computer generated images, the early 16th century was reached. We could see the new St Peter's Basilica being constructed and the exterior of the Sistine Chapel built for Pope Sixtus IV between 1473 and 1481. Next the gauze screen on which the footage was projected slid back and we were confronted with what looked like pillars of rock from Stonehenge all set against an ethereal grey background of swirling mist. The sequence ended with the appearance of a huge white block of marble and suddenly a live figure of the young artist Michelangelo. In a short soliloquy designed to explore his artistic sensibility in relation to carving the stone we were invited to think about the genius required to produce a masterpiece in marble. Suddenly, yes you've guessed it, the block turned into a hologram figure of the life sized "David" he sculpted in Florence in 1503.
You've probably got the idea now of how this presentation unfolded. Every trick in the computer generated and dramatic book was milked to develop the multisensory experience - digital film, stereophonic sound, dramatic lighting, injected smells and with a small group of actors - soliloquy, dialogue, mime and dance. Not only that, the whole of the auditorium was used - the stage area of course, the expansive walls, the huge ceiling and not forgetting the seating area itself. Several times a fully robed Pope and a bedraggled looking Michelangelo came amongst us.
I'm not going to describe every aspect of the production. Suffice to say that the show concentrated on the commissioning of Michelangelo to paint the Sistine ceiling by Pope Julius II in 1508, and uitmately his execution of it. Emphasis was put on the painting of the panels down the centre of the ceiling telling nine stories from the book of Genesis, the Creation of Adam and Eve, the Expulsion from the Garden of Eden and the Great Flood. The latter wa particularly memorable with a group of dancers, centre stage, fighting the effects of howling winds and lashing waves. Very dramatic indeed. Also particularly memorable was a scene projected on to both walls of a procession of fully robed Cardinals gathering for a Conclave in the Chapel. This came with beautiful choral chanting and the smell of incense to boot.
The final part of the presentation dealt with the commissioning of Michelangelo thirty years later to paint "The Last Judgment" on the wall above the altar in the chapel which was completed between 1535 and 1541 when he was 67. There was another opus magnum part of the presentation here as sound, light and imagery were used to reveal the artist struggling mentally with the epic scale of the work.
The whole thing lasted about an hour and the big question is - was it a worthwhile experience? Well for me, despite the memorable moments, it was a bit contrived and gimmicky and Sistine Chapel secrets there were none. It was a bit like a video arcade game crossed with a Disney movie with some real human drama thrown in. Dramatic yes; a multi-sensory experience - definitely; clever - without a doubt. I couldn't help feeling however that in this day and age, where many from the younger generations are brought up on video games, virtual reality and tablet experiences and where they read less and less, that everything entertainment wise has to be sensational to attract attention. The film industry knows this well. Am I being a harsh judge in that respect? I think not but would welcome other opinions on the issues involved here. The following day, to supplement the experience, I returned to the Sistine Chapel after many years to see the frescoes and it has to be said that if I hadn't seen them before or known little of their history - then the presentation would have provided an adequate if superficial background preliminary to the viewing. My friend in Umbria, keen to know what I'd thought of it when we returned to Umbria, made exactly the same point.
A worst case scenario perhaps would be someone visiting Rome, going to the presentation and then not bothering with the real thing! I hope that doesn't happen!
This was an expensive production and obviously involved huge investment and sponsorship. At 28 euros per person you will have to judge yourself whether its a worthwhile punt. Though I have my reservations - I was glad that I had gone!
Ciao and keep buggering on.
Ian
We arrived at the venue, which we'd never been to before, half an hour before the 8pm show was due to begin. The building, inaugurated in 1950 as a multifunctional space for musical, cultural and artistic events, was obviously huge and we were amongst the earliest there. We presented our printed out e tickets to the smartly uniformed staff and Jon's scanned correctly, but mine didn't so it was a journey to the box office for assistance. Now this is Italy so there was a further excruciating ten minutes whilst bits of paper were perused, boxes ticked and computer screens stared at before finally a new ticket was issued. We were on our way!
The auditorium reminded me of the Prince Edward Theatre in London but on a grander scale. It was huge, austere, black and lined with banked rows of seats upholstered in red. The screen on the stage was illuminated with what you can see in the illustration below. I grumbled at the width of the seats - pefect for small Italian frames, but no good for the likes of big chaps like me and Jon. It was interesting watching people arrive, an odd mixture of couples, groups of friends, families and even the odd catholic priest or two. Needless to say - they were still arriving at the start time so it was another ten minutes before things got going.
The show began fairly ordinarily with some film footage of Rome working backwards from now until finally, using computer generated images, the early 16th century was reached. We could see the new St Peter's Basilica being constructed and the exterior of the Sistine Chapel built for Pope Sixtus IV between 1473 and 1481. Next the gauze screen on which the footage was projected slid back and we were confronted with what looked like pillars of rock from Stonehenge all set against an ethereal grey background of swirling mist. The sequence ended with the appearance of a huge white block of marble and suddenly a live figure of the young artist Michelangelo. In a short soliloquy designed to explore his artistic sensibility in relation to carving the stone we were invited to think about the genius required to produce a masterpiece in marble. Suddenly, yes you've guessed it, the block turned into a hologram figure of the life sized "David" he sculpted in Florence in 1503.
You've probably got the idea now of how this presentation unfolded. Every trick in the computer generated and dramatic book was milked to develop the multisensory experience - digital film, stereophonic sound, dramatic lighting, injected smells and with a small group of actors - soliloquy, dialogue, mime and dance. Not only that, the whole of the auditorium was used - the stage area of course, the expansive walls, the huge ceiling and not forgetting the seating area itself. Several times a fully robed Pope and a bedraggled looking Michelangelo came amongst us.
I'm not going to describe every aspect of the production. Suffice to say that the show concentrated on the commissioning of Michelangelo to paint the Sistine ceiling by Pope Julius II in 1508, and uitmately his execution of it. Emphasis was put on the painting of the panels down the centre of the ceiling telling nine stories from the book of Genesis, the Creation of Adam and Eve, the Expulsion from the Garden of Eden and the Great Flood. The latter wa particularly memorable with a group of dancers, centre stage, fighting the effects of howling winds and lashing waves. Very dramatic indeed. Also particularly memorable was a scene projected on to both walls of a procession of fully robed Cardinals gathering for a Conclave in the Chapel. This came with beautiful choral chanting and the smell of incense to boot.
The final part of the presentation dealt with the commissioning of Michelangelo thirty years later to paint "The Last Judgment" on the wall above the altar in the chapel which was completed between 1535 and 1541 when he was 67. There was another opus magnum part of the presentation here as sound, light and imagery were used to reveal the artist struggling mentally with the epic scale of the work.
The whole thing lasted about an hour and the big question is - was it a worthwhile experience? Well for me, despite the memorable moments, it was a bit contrived and gimmicky and Sistine Chapel secrets there were none. It was a bit like a video arcade game crossed with a Disney movie with some real human drama thrown in. Dramatic yes; a multi-sensory experience - definitely; clever - without a doubt. I couldn't help feeling however that in this day and age, where many from the younger generations are brought up on video games, virtual reality and tablet experiences and where they read less and less, that everything entertainment wise has to be sensational to attract attention. The film industry knows this well. Am I being a harsh judge in that respect? I think not but would welcome other opinions on the issues involved here. The following day, to supplement the experience, I returned to the Sistine Chapel after many years to see the frescoes and it has to be said that if I hadn't seen them before or known little of their history - then the presentation would have provided an adequate if superficial background preliminary to the viewing. My friend in Umbria, keen to know what I'd thought of it when we returned to Umbria, made exactly the same point.
A worst case scenario perhaps would be someone visiting Rome, going to the presentation and then not bothering with the real thing! I hope that doesn't happen!
This was an expensive production and obviously involved huge investment and sponsorship. At 28 euros per person you will have to judge yourself whether its a worthwhile punt. Though I have my reservations - I was glad that I had gone!
Ciao and keep buggering on.
Ian
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