2003 » Italy » Theatre Architecture

The Park of Music / Parco della Musica

The Park of Music in Roma is a space in the middle of the city created for listening to music. Music may be simply consumed here, but the park also incites one to think about music. It is an architectural structure erected of several pieces surrounding three resonant boxes built according to the Renzo Piano's project. The Parco della Musica is located at a place of great architectural importance between the Flamini Stadium (Palazzo dello Sport) and the Little Sport Palace (Palazzetto dello Sport) - both designed by Pier Luigi Nervi. Renzo Piano's goal was to take up work by one of the most famous Italian architects and confront his space allowed for meeting and mutual enhancing with a space intended for mostly sport activities. The Parco della Musica represents a unique work within the framework of Italian architecture, offering cultural experience in such complexity and by so many specific means for the first time ever. The mission of the Parco della Musica is to offer a meeting place not only of people and cultures, but also of epochs and traditions. The centre of the Parco della Musica is an ancient amphitheatre representing not only a symbolic centre of the complex, but also a link to a marvellous architecture of the Eternal City. Three halls of the Parco della Musica were conceived as real musical instruments with their typical features. These huge resonant boxes are not specific only by their architectural image or function, but also by their perfect sound insulation. And moreover, they are fitted with completely independent recording equipment. We may find the St. Cecilia Hall providing 2800 seats intended for symphonic music concerts, for concerts by big orchestras and choirs with variable module configuration of the central stage. The middle hall, bearing the name of the recently deceased famous Master Giuseppe Sinopoli has a capacity of 1200 seats and is the most variable of all three halls: variable spaces for the stage and the orchestra allow organising the huge events of contemporary music as well as of ballet performances. The Small Hall provides 700 seats and it resembles a traditional theatre space. It is fitted with an orchestra pit and a raised stage and it satisfies all require-ments of even very demanding theatre stagings. All spaces and structures including their internal and external environment were created in the Parco della Musica to fit musical production, as best as possible. And thanks to this. Renzo Pianos Parco della Musica has became a vivid environment in which interpreters and listeners constantly search and find new musical expressions and experiences.