TEATRO MARCELLO - ROMA

In about a week Kasia and I will be playing in this incredible space!

In the intimate area between the Teatro Marcello (on the very left of this picture you can see the double row of arches) and the Temple of Apollo (two remaining colums are also relatively on the left of the picture) the Roman nights are brigthened by classical music, performed live by musicians from all over the world during the Summer months.

One of the oldest theaters in Rome, the Teatro Marcello was started under Julius Caesar, but was completed only by Augustus. In 13BC he dedicated this grandious theatre to the memory of his nephew, Marcello, whom he had designated as his successor, but who had died already in 23BC. - in case one wonders (we love comparisons and numbers), the Colosseum was started in 72 after Christ and finished in the year 80 and it could host about 50.000 people, while the Teatro Marcello, finished about 90 years earlier, had space for about 20.000. -

This is a reconstruction

It seems that it was still in use as a theatre in the V Century. Afterwards, a common practice for the Romans, parts of it were recycled for other constructions and, in the Middle Ages, it became a fortified castle! As a private palace, it changed several owners until it became property of the Orsini Family for seveal centuries, and, until very recently, various shops were allowed to utilize the spaces under the arches for their business. 


The concert series we are part of is called Concerti del Tempietto, though, not of the Teatro Marcello. The name is given by the three remaining white cloumns which belonged to the Temple of Apollo Sosiano (after Gaio Sosio who restored it in 34BC). The area was sacred to Apollo from long before that, though: already in 431BC there was a temple dedicated to the god; it was several times destroyed and changed, at one point also to make space for the Teatro Marcello. The temple completely disappeared until around 1930, when parts of its columns were found buried in the arches of the Teatro, when the theatre itself was being renovated. So, in a way, even if the Temple was mutilated by the construction of the Theatre, it was the latter's importance that gave life back to the former.

This is how it looks today and where we will play on August 8th!