Culture minister weighs bringing contemporary art, music to site

Rome, September 10 - The ancient Roman city ofPompeii is set to rock once more - this time to the strains ofopera.

Pompeii's newly reopened open-air theater, the scene of alandmark Pink Floyd concert more than 40 years ago, is soon tobe the setting for the latest brainchild of the Italian cultureministry, the Pompeii Festival. Performances of Giacomo Puccini's La Boheme and GeorgesBizet's Carmen will light up the ancient arena on September 18and 20 respectively. The festival is a test drive for a possible summer operaseries at the famed archaeological site.

"The two nights in Pompeii are part of a larger developmentproject for one of the most beautiful and evocativearchaeological sites in the world," Culture Minister DarioFranceschini told ANSA.

"We would also like to bring contemporary art, theater, andmusic," said Franceschini, citing the 1972 Pink Floyd event,Live in Pompeii, as an inspiration.

In Franceschini's eyes, the Pompeii opera project aims tobe the engine of wider tourism growth in the region of Campaniaaround Naples, many of whose gems are under-exploited.

The ministry said it was "pulling out all the stops" toenhance cultural tourism in Campania. Franceschini in July pledged to catch up on delays inrestoring and revamping Pompeii under an ambitious105-million-euro Great Pompeii Project safeguarding the uniquesite created when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, preservingthe entire city in ash.

In April, heavy rains led to several reports of collapsedwalls soon after UNESCO warnings that the miraculouslypreserved ancient city could "completely fall apart" and loseits world heritage status unless urgent action was taken.

That triggered government pledges to speed up tendering forwork on other new surveillance and protection measures for thesite. There has been a long and worrying catalogue of bits ofPompeii falling off.

For example, in November 2010 the House of the Gladiatorscame down, prompting Italian President Giorgio Napolitano tosay: "This is a disgrace for the whole of Italy".

The opera project follows years of successful sound andlight spectacles using the evocative ruins as backdrop.

The shows, dubbed Pompeii Moons, run from the first weekendin May until the last weekend in October.

Italy's first 'son-et-lumiere' tours, they kicked off toimmediate acclaim in 2002 and have proved a big hit ever since.

The tours climax in the Forum with a dramatic videore-enactment of the catastrophic eruption that buried thecity and its lesser-known but equally fascinating neighbourHerculaneum.