The essay describes the main stages of the conception and organization of classical
representations in the Greek theater in Syracuse, starting from 1914. Mario Tommaso
Gargallo’s and Ettore Romagnoli’s work is set in the age of the open air theater,
widespread in Europe since the late nineteenth century, and immediately dialogues with
the major expressions of the first avant-garde. The goal of their work was to look at the
Greek paradigm to create a new model for the contemporary scene, starting from a
staging that can unify together word, music and dance. The National Institute of Ancient
Drama (INDA) was able to activate and preserve those exceptional circumstances that,
according to Édouard Schuré, had failed in Bayreuth and Orange; and it imposed an
ethical and aesthetic model of formal unity, which leaved a mark on the Italian indoor
scene of the early twentieth century
