3D video replaces huge sets in Verona as full operas resume

The Verona Arena amphitheater in northern Italy has returned to staging full operas for the first time since the pandemic, but with one big difference.

The monumental sets that normally fill the vast amphitheater stage have been replaced by dynamic, 3D images broadcast on huge LED screens, recreating a Sicilian village or a Fellini-esque film backlot.

Distancing rules meant that stagehands moving sets had to be limited in the cramped backstage in the open-air Roman-era amphitheater, setting in motion a reimagining of the 98th Verona Arena Opera Festival.

For this season, technology is standing in for the sets for which the Arena is famous, ones big enough to fill the vast stage and engage even audience members sitting far away in the uppermost seats.

"We understood already last year in November that we needed to have another plan, in the eventuality that we couldn't use the big sets," said the Arena's general manager, Cecilia Gasdia. "After all, the Verona Arena is used to doing huge shows, a little pharaonic, with great artistic quality."

Deputy creative director Stefano Trespidi tapped technical wizards at DWOK, an Italian company specializing in advanced video design that helped create La Scala's all-virtual 2020 season premier and designed virtual sets for a production of "Aida" at the Sydney opera.

"They are artists and technicians at the same time, and that is not easy," Trespidi said. "This is a great innovation; innovations need time to take hold. The process that we started today we don't know where it will take us. Certainly, it will take us forward."

Friday's season-opening premiere was a double-bill of Pietro Mascagni's "Cavalleria rusticana" and Ruggiero Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci," a production planned...