by Paola Laforgia (ANSA) - BARI, 23 OCT - Thirty years ago, the people of Bari found themselves parading astonished on Sunday morning of 27 October in front of the smoking crater of the Petruzzelli theater, which was destroyed in one night by an arson. In these days I am back in line in front of the theater which has reopened its spaces with full capacity in the 'new' normality of the therapy, to attend the performance of Nabucco. And in the hall, after two years between stops and restrictions, there is an air of festivity and rebirth, almost like the one that the city experienced on 4 October 2009 with the reopening of the theater after a difficult reconstruction and 18 years of darkness. "Looking at these 30 years with a positive spirit - analyzes the superintendent of the Petruzzelli Opera Symphonic Foundation and Bari Theater,Massimo Biscardi - we can say that the fire disaster brought about a positive fact, namely that Bari was established as the seat of the 14th Opera Foundation (founded in 2003). One thing that changes the life of a city and a region, and that has allowed the theater to destroy itself in recent years with its musicians, workers, set designers and all the masters, starting an artistic growth that does not take place in a few years ".
From 2014 to today - he adds - the number of curtain rises has grown by 70% and that of attendance has grown by 101%. "We are growing rapidly - he concludes - although unfortunately the pandemic has interrupted us. We were born recently, we have a growth margin important and I hope that we will be given the possibility in defining the new criteria for the Fus to continue growing ".
(HANDLE).