The ''Teatro Comunale Alighieri'' is an

opera house An opera house is a theater building used for performances of opera. Like many theaters, it usually includes a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, backstage facilities for costumes and building sets, as well as offices for the institut ...

located at 2 Via Mariani in

Ravenna Ravenna ( ; , also ; ) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire during the 5th century until its Fall of Rome, collapse in 476, after which ...

, Italy and designed by the Venetian architects, Tommaso Meduna and his brother,

Giambattista Giovanni Battista was a common Italian given name (see Battista for those with the surname) in the 16th-18th centuries. It refers to "John the Baptist" in English, the French equivalent is "Jean-Baptiste". Common nicknames include Giambattista, Gi ...

who had designed the second ''

La Fenice Teatro La Fenice (; "The Phoenix Theatre") is a historic opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of "the most famous and renowned landmarks in the history of Italian theatre" and in the history of opera as a whole. Especially in the 19th cen ...

'' theatre after the fire of 1836 . The new Teatro Comunale Alighieri was inaugurated on 15 May 1852 with a production of

Meyerbeer Giacomo Meyerbeer (born Jakob Liebmann Meyer Beer; 5 September 1791 – 2 May 1864) was a German opera composer, "the most frequently performed opera composer during the nineteenth century, linking Mozart and Wagner". With his 1831 opera ''Ro ...

's ''

Robert le diable ''Robert le diable'' (''Robert the Devil'') is an opera in five acts composed by Giacomo Meyerbeer between 1827 and 1831, to a libretto written in French by Eugène Scribe and Germain Delavigne. ''Robert le diable'' is regarded as one of the first ...

'', followed by

Giovanni Pacini Giovanni Pacini (11 February 17966 December 1867) was an Italian composer, best known for his operas. Pacini was born in Catania, Sicily, the son of the buffo Luigi Pacini, who was to appear in the premieres of many of Giovanni's operas. The fam ...

's ''

Medea In Greek mythology, Medea (; ; ) is the daughter of Aeëtes, King Aeëtes of Colchis. Medea is known in most stories as a sorceress, an accomplished "wiktionary:φαρμακεία, pharmakeía" (medicinal magic), and is often depicted as a high- ...

''. It presently offers a program of up to six operas during the season which runs from November to April. For about 125 years following 1723, Ravenna had one main theatre for the presentation of opera, the ''Teatro Comunitativo'' located outside the centre of the city. It featured a lavishly decorated, U-shaped baroque auditorium with 97 boxes on four tiers. In the 50 years following 1802, it presented 170 operatic productions, 24 of which were by

Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. He gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano p ...

, 22 by

Donizetti Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian Romantic composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the ''bel canto'' opera ...

, and 10 by

Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi ( ; ; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto, a small town in the province of Parma, to a family of moderate means, recei ...

. However, the 1830s and 1840s revealed its inadequacy, and plans were made to build a new theatre in the heart of the city; the cornerstone of the replacement theatre was laid in 1840. With construction continuing until 1852, the new ''Teatro Comunale'' was named for the famous poet,

Dante Aligheri Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian ...

, who had been exiled from Florence and spent his last four years of life in Ravenna. Reflecting the style of the Venetian brothers, the exterior of the ''Alighieri'' is neo-classical with a four ionic columns and a portico with statues of four Muses. With 118 boxes in four tiers plus a gallery, the auditorium was constructed in the traditional horseshoe shape with 830 seats. As befitting his position as the major operatic composer of the day, Giuseppe Verdi's operas were dominant at the new theatre during its first fifty years; of other composers' works, Donizetti's operas were the only ones which appeared regularly until 1870 and those of Bellini vanished after 1866. However, French

grand opera Grand opera is a genre of 19th-century opera generally in four or five acts, characterized by large-scale casts and Orchestra, orchestras. The original productions consisted of spectacular design and stage effects with plots normally based on o ...

survived until the 20th century. Since its foundation in 1990, the annual June/July

Ravenna Festival The Ravenna Festival is a summer festival of opera and classical music (as well as dance, jazz, ethnic, musical theater, ballett, sacred music, electronic music, drama, film, plus conventions and exhibitions) held in the city of Ravenna, Italy an ...

has presented a very diverse range of operas at the ''Alighieri''. These have included rare works by

Salieri Antonio Salieri (18 August 17507 May 1825) was an Italian composer and teacher of the classical period. He was born in Legnago, south of Verona, in the Republic of Venice, and spent his adult life and career as a subject of the Habsburg monarc ...

, Auber, and Cherubini as well as less performed operas by many of the standard 19th-century composers plus more popular works.

References

;Sources * Lorenzo Miserocchi. Musica e teatro in Ravenna dal 1800 al 1920. Società tipo-editrice Ravennate, 1921 *Lynn, Karyl Charna, ''Italian Opera Houses and Festivals'', Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2005.

External links

Ravenna Festival website (in English)
{{coord, 44, 25, 02, N, 12, 12, 04, E, region:IT_type:landmark_source:kolossus-itwiki, display=title Opera houses in Italy Buildings and structures in Ravenna Tourist attractions in Emilia-Romagna Theatres completed in 1852 Theatres in Emilia-Romagna Music venues completed in 1852 1852 establishments in the Papal States 19th-century architecture in Italy

See also

References

External links