On April 21, the legendary date of the founding of Rome, two of the three theaters in Rome’s new Auditorium complex, or Parco della Musica, were inaugurated, inspiring intense feelings of wonder. The uncanny scarab-shaped hoods of the three halls projected a stunning new iconic identity for Rome’s northern entry point, an image as remarkable as the glistening domes that characterize her center. The elegant fit of the project’s hanging gardens with a difficult site, hemmed in on two sides by the roaring traffic viaduct of Corso Francia, has inserted a gentle landscape buffer for insulating the theaters. The acoustics of the concert halls, affected by a series of movable and static cherry wood panels, was experimented during a two-month period of sold-out concerts, and unanimously declared by musicians and public alike to be peerless...
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