Colosseum's comeback

Before this summer's festival of plays, the Colosseum had not seen a live show since 523

Rome's ancient arena re-opens
after 1,500 years for 'art and culture'

August 18, 2000
Web posted at: 5:47 p.m. EST (2147 GMT)

In this story:

An 8-year restoration project
Renewed interest with 'Gladiator'
'This is an experiment'

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From staff and wire reports

ROME -- Imagine a crowd of 75,000 spectators. Feel the vibrations from their screams and stomps. Hear the growls of lions and other wild beasts. Taste the dust, tossed up by gladiators scrambling for their lives.

Welcome to the Colosseum, circa A.D. 80.

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Rome's ancient arena of death and slaughter has come back to life -- with a far less bloody, more civilized bent. For the first time in nearly 1,500 years, a paying audience attended shows this summer in the Colosseum.

Those at the most recent Colosseum performances saw not gory spectacles but festival of Greek tragedy plays and other artistic performances. These shows took place on a wooden structure set over the underground lairs that once housed lions, tigers and other animals.

Italian Culture Minister Giovanna Melandri hailed the return of live entertainment to the Colosseum as "a historical event for this monument and this country."

"We are not going back to (the Colosseum's) gruesome and tragic origins," Melandri added, "but will instead give space to art and culture."

On July 18, around 700 people watched the Colosseum's grand re-opening performance, a production of Sophocles' "Oedipus Rex" by the National Theater of Greece. The show, the start of a summer program of plays and other performances, capped an 8-year restoration project.

The new wooden stage -- which covered 4,305 square feet of the 29,000-square-foot arena -- cost 1.5 billion lire ($724,500). Workers made seats and standing room spots at the east end of the Colosseum, near the podium where the emperor, his court and senators used to give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to decide a gladiator's fate.

Even with the renovations and artistic shows, the current setting is full of reminders of the Colosseum's amazing past.

The stage, for one, makes it possible for people to stand where the gladiators once roamed. Actors will reach the stage via a wooden bridge linking the structure to the western end of the Colosseum -- thus, passing over a maze of underground passages once filled with wild beasts.

The decision to build the stage is part of a project to protect the remaining stone passages from further damage.

"The spirit behind this initiative is that of uniting preservation with cultural activities," Melandri said. "The stage is important because it also protects the monument."

This summer's audience -- paying 40,000 lire ($20) for standing room spots and 100,000 lire ($50) for seats -- was a far cry from the rowdy, bloodthirsty crowds that witnessed gladiator shows around 1,500 years ago.

In A.D. 80, Roman Emperor Titus opened the then-brand new Colosseum with 100 days of gladitorial combat, a festival that cost thousands of lives. At 617 feet long, 1,730 feet in circumference and 164 feet high, the building is impressive, even by modern standards.

The last show, featuring paid entertainment, occurred in 523. The passages, clogged with earth over the centuries, were dug out on the order of French Emperor Napoleon at the end of the 18th century.

This year's blockbuster movie "Gladiator," starring Russell Crowe, gave millions across the world a renewed sense of what happened in the Colosseum during its heyday -- full of prisoners, wild beasts and more fighting to the death.

The shows inside the monument this summer were far different from those of 1,500 years ago. A trilogy of Sophocles tragedies was performed from July 19 to Aug. 6. The Greek National Theater began with "Oedipus Rex," followed by the Dramatic Arts Center of Tehran's presentation of "Antigone." Rome's Santa Cecilia Academy ended the play festival with the opera "Oedipus" by 19th-century German composer Felix Mendelssohn, adapted from Sophocles' "Oedipus in Colonus."

"It's a victory for theater to play in this place," said actor Grigoris Valtinos at a dress rehearsal for the Greek National Theater's "Oedipus." "This place is full of blood. But I hope to fill it with soul."

Officials said it's not clear what will happen next to the Colosseum as archaeologists will need to study the impact of the wooden structure on the ancient walls.

"This is an experiment. We'll see how it goes, and then we will decide," Melandri said.

She said the culture ministry would be rigorous in choosing future cultural initiatives for the Colosseum.