First Theaters, Made Contemporary!

Odeon of Herodes Atticus

The cradle of theater is considered to be the theater of Dionysus, an open-air stage set at the foot of the Acropolis at roughly 432 BC. Later, during the Roman rule, around 161 AD, Herodes Atticus built a theater in remembrance of his wife Regilla on the other side to match the Theater of Dionysus. He named it the Odeon, or the Odeon of Herodes Atticus. Yes, there was an Odeon before the trendy watering hole in Tribeca NY.

Excavated around 1857, Athens has fully renovated this spectacular outdoor arena, and this week, I had the pleasure to see a production of the opera Il Trovatore by Verdi there.

The Hand and Eye stage set

Despite the upcoming elections and debt crisis, Athen's society was out in full bloom for this event. People dressed in their summer finest, and enjoyed drinks in the Odeon's outer courtyard before the event. This was almost an entire event in itself--to be seen and see others.

My favorite was one of the male leads, a Korean opera singer named Rudy Park. His performance was so heartfelt and emotional that I found myself crying. Be on the lookout for this rising star. Watch him in action on this You Tube clip. The Odeon's acoustics were spot-on. I'm not even sure that the singers wore mics, that's how perfectly the sound traveled. Above are some of the sets: a giant hand, and eye, a ball of tortured souls. As the sun set, the moon was reflected in the onstage pools.

This opera was a wonderful counterpoint to the day's visit to the Acropolis and its fashionable new museum, devoted to showing the painstaking renovation of the Parthenon's "lost" statuary and art.

I'm reminded of the great outdoor spaces like Red Rocks in Denver, Colorado and Tanglewood in Massachusetts. 

What other great outdoor entertainment spaces do you know of? 

Great summer performances?