- published: 25 Apr 2014
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Messina (/məˈsiːnə/; Italian pronunciation: [mesˈsiːna], Sicilian: Missina; Latin: Messana, Greek: Μεσσήνη) is the capital of the Italian province of Messina. It is the 3rd largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of more than 252,000 inhabitants in the city proper and about 650,000 in the province. It is located near the northeast corner of Sicily, at the Strait of Messina, opposite Villa San Giovanni on the mainland, and has close ties with Reggio Calabria.
The city's main resources are its seaports (commercial and military shipyards), cruise tourism, commerce, and agriculture (wine production and cultivating lemons, oranges, mandarin oranges, and olives). The city has been a Roman Catholic Archdiocese and Archimandrite seat since 1548 and is home to a locally important international fair. The city has the University of Messina, founded in 1548 by Ignatius of Loyola.
Messina has a light rail system, Tranvia di Messina, that was opened on 3 April 2003. This line is 7.7 kilometres (4.8 mi) and links the city's central railway station with the city centre and harbour.
Cedric Messina (14 December 1920 in Port Elizabeth, South Africa — 30 April 1993 in London) was a South-African born British television producer and director who worked for the BBC and is best remembered for his involvement in television productions of classic drama.
Born to Sicilian and Welsh immigrant parents, Messina attended school in Johannesburg and joined the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) in the 1930s. He first worked for the BBC as a radio announcer and drama producer for a time in 1947, later permanently moving to the UK and joining BBC Radio in the later role during 1958.
Joining BBC Television in 1962, he was responsible for Dr Finlay's Casebook as producer and director for a time before being given responsibility for Theatre 625 on the new BBC 2. Becoming the producer of Play of the Month in 1966 he supervised more than 80 productions until 1977, and also produced opera for television.
In 1975, while on location at Glamis Castle for a Play of the Month production of The Little Minister by J. M. Barrie, Messina thought he had found the ideal location for Shakespeare's As You Like It, an idea which soon grew to the BBC undertaking the entire Bardic canon. The BBC Television Shakespeare was the result, and Messina was responsible for the first two seasons (twelve plays) broadcast between 1978 and 1980. The series gained mixed reviews, and the perceived problems were often thought the responsibility of Messina himself. Clive James complained that Romeo and Juliet, the first screened production, was set "not in Verona, but in that semi-abstract, semi-concrete, wholly uninteresting city known to students as Messina." Susan Willis, in her book on the BBC Shakespeare cycle, writes: "That we have the televised Shakespeare series at all is entirely due to Messina; that we have the series we have and not perhaps a better, more exciting one is also in large part due to Messina."