Roman Theatre of Orange

PRESS PACK PRESS ROMAN THEATRE OF ORANGE & Art and History Museum A site developed and managed by Press contact Christophe Beth Director +33 (0)7 87 36 55 50 [email protected] © CCulturespaces / Ârome © CCulturespaces CONTENTS Culturespaces, representative for the Roman Theatre and the Museum of Orange....... 3 From oblivion to renewal, the history of the Roman Theatre ...................................... 4 Well-preserved architecture............................................................................................ 7 The Art and History Museum and the Triumphal Arch ............................................10 Events in 2018............................................................................................................... 11 The action of Culturespaces at the Roman Theatre and the Museum of Orange .... 12 The Culturespaces Foundation ....................................................................................... 15 Practical Information.................................................................................................... 16 © C. Recoura CULTURESPACES, REPRESENTATIVE FOR THE ROMAN THEATRE OF ORANGE With more than 25 years of experience and nearly 3 millions visitors every year, Culturespaces is the leading private organisation managing French monuments and museums, and one of the leading European players in cultural tourism. Culturespaces produces and manages, with an ethical and professional approach, monuments, museums and prestigious historic sites entrusted to it by public bodies and local authorities. Are managed by Culturespaces: - l’Atelier des Lumières, Paris (in 2018) - Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris (since 1996) - Musée Maillol, Paris (since 2016) - Hôtel de Caumont-Centre d’Art, Aix-en-Provence (since 2015) - Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat (since 1992) - Carrières de Lumières aux Baux-de-Provence (since 2012) - Château des Baux-de-Provence (since 1993) - Roman Theatre and Art and History Museum of Orange (since 2002) - Nîmes Amphitheatre, the Maison Carrée, the Tour Magne (since 2006) - Cité de l’Automobile, Mulhouse (since 1999) Aware that our heritage must be preserved for future generations, Culturespaces contributes every year to financing restoration programmes for the monuments and collections it has been entrusted to look after. More generally, Culturespaces is responsible for upgrading spaces and collections, welcoming the general public, managing staff and all services, organising cultural activities and temporary exhibitions and promoting sites at national and international level, with efficient and responsible management methods certified ISO 9001. To ensure that visits are always a pleasure, the Culturespaces teams place quality of reception and cultural enrichment at the heart of all their services to visitors. Press pack - Roman Theatre of Orange I 3 FROM OBLIVION TO RENEWAL, THE HISTORY OF THE ROMAN THEATRE Origin of the City of Orange Orange, Arausio in Latin, became part of Roman history in 103 BC Conquered by the Romans a quarter of a century before, it had to defend itself against Germanic invaders, the Cimbre. This was the first time the name of Arausio was mentioned by ancient writers and it had to wait until 36 or 35 B.C. to be established as a Roman town, adjoining the hill of Saint Eutrope. Arausio was a colony founded by veterans of Caesar’s 2nd Gallic Legion, who had been assigned to build the city. In accordance with the principles for establishing Roman towns, the construction of the city followed a regular, geometric plan and was organised around public monuments: the sanctuaries and the theatre. For the Roman authorities, the theatre was a means of spreading Roman culture amongst the colonised population as well as being a means of distracting them from any political concerns and avoiding any nationalist demands. The construction of a Roman theatre Although techniques enabling a theatre to be built on flat land had been mastered at the time of Imperial Rome, the building was constructed against the Saint Eutrope hill using a technique borrowed from the Greeks. In fact, the Romans had two methods of constructing this type of building: they either constructed enormous walls to support the terraces or they used the natural lie of the land. This was what they decided to do at Arausio as the terraces, called the cavea, are directly supported by the Saint Eutrope hill, with infrastructures intended to even out any ground irregularities. Seating, a reflection of the social order A resident of Aurasio could not just sit anywhere in the cavea. It was not a matter of money as the shows were free for everyone, but a question of social standing. In fact, seating in the various terraces was strictly allocated according to status, and movement around the corridors and galleries was controlled so that there was no intermingling. To sum up, the seating of spectators was a perfect reflection of the social hierarchy of the city. In front of the stage, in the orchestra, people from civic and military life were seated on moveable seats. Behind them, separated from the orchestra by a stone parapet, the first terraces were reserved for members of the equestrian order, the horsemen. Higher up were the magistrates, members of priestly colleges, corporations of craftsmen and merchants, who played a very important role in the town. And the higher you went up the terraces, the lower the classes became, until you came to the pullati, people on the margins of society, seated at the top: beggars, prostitutes, but also outsiders, who did not benefit from the privilege of Roman citizenship. The covered gallery at the top of the terraces was reserved for these people. An important detail: women had the right to attend shows at the Theatre, only public place where you could be alongside them. Press pack - Roman Theatre of Orange I 4 Shows at the Roman Theatre of Orange in the Roman period On show days, Arausio residents would go to the Theatre from morning onwards. The most frequent shows were undoubtedly mimes, pantomimes, poetry readings, verbal sparring matches, comedies or attelanes, and other entertainment, such as jugglers, conjurers or bear tamers. Mimes were farces parodying both domestic life and politics or mythology. Performed by actors in costume but without masks, they alternated between dialogue, dancing and singing, accompanied on the tibia, a double-reeded wind instrument, and on the scabellum, a pair of small cymbals attached to articulated wooden sandals which the musician operated by moving his foot. Pantomimes were entirely performed by non-speaking dancers who performed solo and wore masks with sealed mouths. By their movements and coded body language, they acted out tragic, epic or poetically inspired intrigues, which were sung by a choir accompanied by an orchestra made up of tibiae, scabella, zithers, lyres, syrinx, tambourines and cymbals. The attelane was a farce, quite similar to the commedia dell’ arte, and was performed by four actors wearing conventional masks: Pappus, the old man, Doscenus, the hunchback, Bucco, always starving, and Maccus, the idiot. Their comical adventures were mainly inspired by daily life. The theatrical repertoire had long since move away from the Greek tragedies. The public was only interested in shows. But these were evolving towards an increasingly spectacular genre, towards increasingly bloody scenes. The decadence of the shows Gradually the shows went into decline. There was no dialogue and there were violent and immoral scenes. The public attended murders or rapes of prisoners or of those condemned to death. The theatre became a place of perdition, cruelty, approaching the style of the Roman games. In 391, Christianity was proclaimed the official religion of the Empire. The Church fought against paganism and deviance and therefore ordered that the Theatre be closed. The big sleep In the 4th century, the Western Roman Empire collapsed. In 412, the Theatre was attacked by the Visigoths, who pillaged the town. They tore down the Emperor’s statue, burnt the roof over the stage, destroyed the terraces to make them into sarcophagi and dismantled the marble and mosaics. Middle Ages and the Renaissance William of Gellone, a Count of Toulouse and cousin of Charlemagne, took over Orange from his relative and bravely fought against the Saracens. The little horn on the coat of arms of the city of Orange was chosen as a reminder of William of Gellone. The principality created in the 12th century passed to the lords of Baux, then to the Chalon family. In 1530, the last of this line left everything to his nephew, René de Chalon, prince of Nassau, whose descendants would remain princes of Orange until 1702. This family still reigns today in the Netherlands. Press pack - Roman Theatre of Orange I 5 During this time, the Theatre fell into disrepair, although its superb wall remained standing. The barbarian invasions were followed by pillaging. Stone, marble and mosaics from the monument were reused in other private and public buildings. In the Middle Ages, the Theatre became a defensive post and a sentry box was built within its walls. During the wars of religion, Orange is governed by protestant princes. To avoid being massacred, some of the population fled the town and took refuge behind the big theatre wall. Sometime later, peace was restored and the inhabitants found space limited within the city walls, so within the Theatre, against the stage wall and on the terraces, building work

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