There are times in opera when the theatre is effectively the show, as was the case last week in the Italian town of Parma: famous for its ham but also for a Verdi festival, which opened this year with a show in maybe the most stunning theatre-space I’ve ever seen.
Parma’s Teatro Farnese is a 17th-century amphitheatre, built in 1618 from wood but on a monumental scale for grand festivities to entertain the local dukes. These days it’s rarely used, except as a museum. But for the Verdi festival it housed a staging of Giovanna d’Arco that was both sensational and clever – produced by the British film director Peter Greenaway and his wife, Saskia Boddeke.
