Teatro Farnese, Parma, Italy

"This is the Teatro Farnese, rebuilt after the Americans destroyed it with a bomb in the Second World War. Unfortunately, this lens is simply not wide enough to capture all of this, but I&try to give you an idea. Helen and I are the only ones here at the moment, and this is reputedly the world&first proscenium arch. Of course, it&a reproduction, but it was here that they&first supposed to have used the proscenium arch to let the audience see the action, as it were through a window, rather than in the round as in Shakespeare&theatre. This was built in 1618, the original one, so you can judge. People used to sit all around the stage. Anyway, let&walk up and have a look at the view from the stage. Well, on the way up, here are some of the original decorations. I believe they didn&decide to rebuld it until 1956. And up here, this is the coat of arms of the Duke of Parma. Now you¬ice the stage has forced perspective. I&walking up a long slope to the stage, which we&on now, but the stage still slopes up to the rear, which would allow the forced perspective. And here - sorry about that unevenness - is a view, as best I can give it you, from centre stage, under the proscenium arch. Well, I&just walked downstage - as far as I can - away from the arch, and you can now see it, as it were. They haven&of course, replaced all the decorations or the ceiling, in fact. Now backstage, pretty bare, and I&walk forward now, downstage - upstage, sorry - until you can see the effect.