The last Agora

ANTONIO PAPPANO PREFACE

I have been working in lyric theatre for almost forty years, and to this day the singularly most important part of my day is entering the auditorium. Call it a frisson, a wake-up call, a reminder that I am entering not only a beautiful space, but a receptacle for shared discoveries, shared dreams and hopes, shared illumination via the creativity of the performing artists, their talent, their daring! The word “share” is key; theatre brings the community together in a space, usually curved, as our visionary Greek and Roman ancestors showed us, so that not only would everyone have an unrestricted view of the stage or playing area, or a brilliant acoustic, but also, and crucially, a view of the rest of
the audience! Two theatres in one! This gathering of souls thirsty for something outside themselves, sharing avunique and unrepeatable moment of potential magic, is a signature of our culture.
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