Muriel Mayette-Holtz

Siracusa is like a sleeping beauty for me, resting between earth and heaven; she sails through life protected by her history, surrounded by fishermen and lovers of beauty…

When we go there in winter, we always meet the same people, we swing from the chill of a marine breeze, the dampness of the sea to the force of the sun … you can have a coffee on the terrace and nibble at a fried pastry Siracusa-style… you think about a future festival, everything takes the time it takes and then Spring arrives, and all of a sudden, like a miracle, Siracusa comes to life!

All the people are called to help out at the theatre; the men decorate and the women sew, they are extras, costumists, builders, everyone is involved, everyone works at the production… it’s mad and unreal, everything becomes possible!

I’ve seen an entire forest get up and alternate with a pretend sea, I’ve seen the steps filled with an attentive audience twenty nights in a row, five-thousand people together to see the great tragedies! The silence of the crowd, in this enormous and intimate screen that is the Greek Theatre of Siracusa!

Yes, it was a miracle! The magic of theatre, the force of the poet, the actor! We sang every night until late! Siracusa is immense, infinite, beautiful, it’s the centre of the world…

This I will never forget… that magic has created such a strong link between the actors of the cast, that we continue to write to each other... Maddalena at Siracusa is for me the undeniable beauty of the theatre.

Muriel Mayette-Holtz

Direttrice Théatre National de Nice