After the Earthquake

Operas for reconstruction at L'Aquila,
reported by GIUSEPPE PENNISI

Who remembers The Third Man, Carol Reed's film noir on spying in Vienna in the years immediately after World War II? Vienna was shown as a devastated town divided in various sections (according to the nationality of the occupying armies) and where public transport and just about everything else only worked approximately. In that Vienna, the Marshall Plan delegation had asked the City Council to provide a list of their priorities: according to the Council, the top thing to do would have been the reconstruction of the much beloved Opera House-on-the-Ring, the world famous Staatsoper. The Marshall Plan officials were flabbergasted but eventually had to concede...

ROME

ITALY