Bread and Circuses

Attila in Prada

You don't see enough late antiquity on stage. There has been a fair amount about the Met's new production of Verdi's early opera Attila. The focus of much of the coverage has been on the costumes designed by Prada. The Thread has the best coverage:

Through a somewhat amusing chain of moles and gossip, we learn that Prada's Attila costumes comprise leather, fur and distressed denim, reminiscent of the designer's past runway collections.

The highly protected dress rehearsal couldn't trick the blogosphere, and we got snippets of the barbaric landscape, with Prada outfitting the grimy castmembers in fringed leather, rumpled tees, studs, furs and distressed finishes.

But what about the production as a whole? The FT is not convinced:

It all looked interesting on paper. It didn't look interesting - or dramatic or effective or even coherent - in the theatre.

While Muti made beautiful music in the pit - often rousing, sometimes reflective, always precise - his cohorts created stilted pageants on the stage. Ignoring all opportunities for activity or even character definition, they reduced the primitive saga of barbarism in the Roman Empire to a convention for singing statues. The clumsy result: a concert with bizarre costumes performed amid walls of impurely decorative scenery.

Ouch. It gets worse at New York Magazine:

The Met’s new aesthetic has taught us that we have less to fear from a director’s lofty concept than from a director without a concept, and Audi seems to have dropped off his cast in the décor and fled. Perhaps he was scared off by Muti, who brings such overweening clarity of intention to an opera he adores that he leaves little room for anyone else’s interventions. Then again, because so many of the singers lacked clear visions of their characters, Muti was able to shape the ensemble to his specifications. On opening night, the usually squishy tenor Ramón Vargas vaulted to a new level. That’s not to say he plumbed the role of Foresto for anything deeper than the usual stock affects, but he did discover some unsuspected subtleties, especially in plaintive, half-voice passages and in his Act III curtain-raiser, “Che non avrebbe il misero.” Violeta Urmana brought her spiked weapon of a voice to the regicidal warrior Odabella, who was far more fearsome than the Ildar Abdrazakov’s politely fuzzy Attila. The one jolt of individuality came from a last-minute sub, the baritone Giovanni Meoni, who stepped in for Carlos Álvarez in the role of the Roman general Ezio and delivered it with the sinew and panache of a genuine Verdi baritone.

Only the NY Times saves the day:

It may be trite to describe a performance as a revelation, but this one really was. Mr. Muti, an exemplary Verdi conductor, is especially fond of the undervalued early Verdi works. “Attila” is a particular cause. Mr. Muti drew a refined, lithe and stunningly fresh performance from the Met Orchestra, which played as if inspired; the Met chorus, which sang with an alluring blend of richness and focus; and the impressive cast, starring the compelling Russian bass Ildar Abdrazakov in the title role. During every moment, “Attila” came across as a vibrant and engrossing music drama.

Can you securitise the Parthenon?

An interesting idea in today's FT. A report on former Greek finance minister Nikos Christodoulakis who looked at ways to reduce his country's public debt soon after accession to the euro in May 2001:

His "Eureka!" moment involved issuing a securitisation bond backed by a stream of future revenues from annual ticket sales to some 6m tourists who visit the classical temples on the Acropolis, as well as other ancient monuments around Greece.

That deal fell through, partly because of objections from archaeologists who feared it would quickly lead to the development of Disney-style theme parks on cherished ancient sites.

Could it work again? Possibly. I have written in the past about whether you can monetise antiquities. There was a panel discussion at the Milken Conference last year (triggered by a report) on how governments could turn antiquities into an income stream by selling archaeological development bonds:

[The bonds would] address long-term community development as a means to bridge current funding gaps on national and local levels. The archaeological development bonds should target projects that bring financial benefit directly to local populations that would, as a result, increase their participation in and appreciation of their cultural heritage. A community in Peru, for example, could build a small museum around a Chimu site, while the federal Ministry of Culture prepares a new wing of the National Museum dedicated to Incan stonework from a sponsored dig in Cusco. Avoiding the bureaucratic traps that arise when national and regional funding bypasses local communities, the bonds would encourage economic growth on the ground, while providing overall returns.

Reuters' Felix Salmon wrote about it at the time with some scepticism. I too did not buy into that idea completely. As I said at the time, the sticking point is that the antiquities market is driven by ownership.

There is of course no question of ownership in this case nor can the temples be loaned out. It would certainly be entertaining to read the ratings reports. A crucial aspect of securitisation deals is that of seasoning. When looking at a securitisation of mortgages, for example, the investor has to know for how long borrowers have been paying their mortgages. A family, 20 years into a 25 year mortgage, is a better risk than someone one year into a 25-year mortgage. It is pretty safe to say that the Acropolis is not falling off the tourist trail any time soon. A couple of millennia of visitors is a solid track record... though any rating for the temples would be limited by the sovereign rating on Greece. 

A securitisation of ticket receivables might just work with something like the temples on the Acropolis. The downside however is less the Disneyfication of sites (though that is a threat), rather that of national politics. Most countries get touchy about their heritage, the Greeks more than most, and the greater danger is that the deal itself could become a focus for nationalist sentiment about selling the family silver.

Centurion - the trailer

Bishop's Wood Hoard For Sale

The auction house Baldwin's is putting up the late antique hoard from Bishop's Wood, near Ross-on-Wye,  up for sale. This from the press release:

Details of the hoard were first published in the 1896 edition of the Numismatic Chronicle, and also in the editorial of the Numismatic Circular in November of that year. In both publications a total of 17,550 coins were listed but many of these coins were subsequently given to local museums and the portion now being sold by Baldwin’s (containing 1,661 coins and the restored jar that contained them) has remained in the family of the original landowner since they were found in 1895.

Following the revolts of the usurpers Carausius and Allectus in Britain in the late third century A.D., it is likely that the area in which the hoard was found was occupied by Roman soldiers at the time the coins were deposited. Given its size it is assumed that the Bishop’s Wood Hoard formed part of a military treasure, intended as payment for the legions. There were no banks in Roman Britain, so the usual practice was to hoard large quantities of money and deposit it in the ground for safe-keeping. It is therefore a fascinating primary source of information for the mints employed in supplying Britain with coinage.

The contents of the hoard are composed almost entirely of bronze coins of the Constantinian family and we can surmise that it was deposited after A.D. 337 as there are many coins of Constantius II, who had received the title of Augustus in that year, included within it. The majority of the coins were minted at Lugdunum (Lyons), Treveri (Trier) and Arelate (Arles). Rome and Aquileia are also present, as well as a sprinkling of coins from Siscia, Thessalonica, Heraclea, Constantinople, Nicomedia, Cyzicus and Antioch. The coins are in very good condition, many of them having seen little or no circulation.

The full press release is here (it downloads as a Word doc). More at CoinLink and at Coin Update News.

New edition of Priscus of Panion

A new edition of Priscus of Panion has been needed for a while and Jan Prostko-Prostynski's review of Pia Carolla's Priscus Panita, Excerpta et fragmenta suggests that it has been worth the wait:

Priscus of Panion (Thrace) was an Eastern Roman diplomat, lawyer and historian. He has been characterized by modern scholars as an archaizing Atticist. He was most likely born in the first quarter of the fifth century (more precise dates for his birth have been suggested: ca. 405/410, 415, 410/420 and others, but are not based on any solid argumentation). He died sometime after 472. Manuscripts of epitomators of his historical work and other historical sources define him as an 'orator' or a 'sophist,' which may indicate that he received a sound classical education. At the end of the reign of Theodosius II (408 - 450), Priscus accompanied Maximinus, a high official of the emperor on a diplomatic mission to the court of Attila (ca. 448/449), though the text does not reveal whether Priscus travelled in the capacity of Maximinus' secretary, as is generally assumed. The historical work of Priscus--The History of Byzantium and the Period of Attila (the title is provided only in the Suda)--is preserved in fragments, mainly through Constantine Porphyrogenetus' Excerpta de legationibus. It was originally composed of eight books and possibly covered the years up to 472.

Nothing could be said better than: "Carolla's opus is the best ever edition of Priscus's text, and, considering the current state of manuscripts, probably the best that could be achieved."

Canterbury's Roman Museum threatened with closure

Depressing news that Canterbury City Council is considering the closure of its Roman Museum. Heritage Key has the story:

Canterbury City Council is the latest local authority set to close museums as part of cost-cutting measures. The council is wielding the budget axe – and it’s decided that saving the city’s Christmas lights is more important than keeping the Roman Museum open to the public.

Under the budget proposals, the Roman Museum and the nearby the Westgate Towers Museum would close, while Herne Bay Museum would remain open only for ‘educational’ groups (though apparently not for the general public who wish to educate themselves).

Full story here. An online petition has been created to help dissuade the city council and a public protest is planned for Saturday 13 February at noon, outside the Roman Museum.

East Asian skeleton discovered in Vagnari, Italy

I was waiting for a bit of meat on the story before I posted this one. Hats off to Owen Jarus at the Independent for having broken this story a week ago:

A team of researchers announced a surprising discovery during a scholarly presentation in Toronto last Friday. The research team, based at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, has been helping to excavate an ancient Roman cemetery at the site of Vagnari in southern Italy. Led by Professor Tracy Prowse, they’ve been analyzing the skeletons found there by performing DNA and oxygen isotope tests.

The surprise is that the DNA tests show that one of the skeletons, a man, has an East Asian ancestry – on his mother’s side. This appears to be the first time that a skeleton with an East Asian ancestry has been discovered in the Roman Empire.

More has emerged in Science Daily:

Based on her work in the region, she [Tracy Prowse, assistant professor of Anthropology, McMaster University] thinks the East Asian man, who lived sometime between the first to second centuries AD -- the early Roman Empire -- was a slave or worker on the site. His surviving grave goods consist of a single pot (which archaeologists used to date the burial). What's more, his burial was disturbed in antiquity and someone was buried on top of him.

Prowse's team cannot say how recently he, or his ancestors, left East Asia: he could have made the journey alone, or his East Asian genes might have come from a distant maternal ancestor. However, the oxygen isotope evidence indicates that he was definitely not born in Italy and likely came here from elsewhere in the Roman Empire.

Full details are going to be presented at the Roman Archeology Conference at Oxford, England, in March, and published in the Journal of Roman Archaeology.

Image courtesy of McMaster University