Parco della Musica

We recently attended a concert performed by the Orchestra and Chorus of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. The program included Beethoven's Grand Fugue and Choral Fantasy and concluded with William Walton's Belshazzar's Feast.

The setting was the Auditorium Parco della Musica, the music complex opened in 2002 in the area where the 1960 Summer Olympic Games were held in the north of Rome. The Parco della Musica was designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano. There are three large concert halls, and the concert we attended (with thanks to our friends Will and Laurent for the tickets) was in the 2,800 seat Sala Santa Cecilia. The three concert halls, are structurally separated to ensure soundproofing, and joined at the base by a continuous lobby. A fourth "concert hall", called Cavea, is the open air theater that is formed in the piazza at the center of the complex. (During the winter there was an ice rink in this piazza.) The concert hall structures sort of resemble beetles because of their dramatic lead roofs.

Padre Pio

This past month the body of Padre Pio was exhumed and put in a glass coffin in the town of San Giovanni Rotondo in Puglia. We were recently in Puglia and I had hoped that we could visit this town, not necessarily to see Padre Pio, but to see the shrine church designed by Renzo Piano. (Renzo Piano has recently designed two projects in New York City: the Morgan Library atrium, on Madison Ave. at 36th Street, and the New York Times building on 8th Avenue.

We never made it to San Giovanni Rotondo, but during our trip we "encountered" Padre Pio every day. It has been reported that Padre Pio is the most popular saint in Italy, with more people praying to him than even the Virgin Mary.

Here are some pictures of Padre Pio as we saw him in Puglia.