After a resounding applause, or after a dramatic moment, or even when all you want is the show to end, at the theater it occurs to everyone to check the time. The spectators of Parma’s Teatro Regio, one of the Italian temples of opera, do this through a very special mechanism.
Above the stage’s arch, a recently restored light clock projects the time. Advancing at 5-minute intervals, the hours in Roman numerals and the minutes in Arab numbers appear one over the other thanks to the light once projected by a lamp and a mechanical gearwheel and weight system, similar to that used in pendulums.
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