The was 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 ...

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

, Italy. It was originally built as the open-air amphitheatre, the Politeama Fiorentino Vittorio Emanuele, which was inaugurated on 17 May 1862 with a production of

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 ...

's ''

Lucia di Lammermoor ''Lucia di Lammermoor'' () is a (tragic opera) in three acts by Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian-language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's 1819 historical novel '' The Bride of Lammermoor''. ...

'' and which seated 6,000 people. It became the focus on cultural life in the city. After closure caused by fire, it reopened in April 1864 and acquired a roof in 1882. By 1911 it had both electricity and heating. In 1930 the building was taken over by the city authorities who renamed it the ''Teatro Comunale''. Bombing during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

damaged the building once again, and other problems closed it for three years in 1958. Finally, in May 1961, the then-modernized theatre reopened with

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 ...

's ''

Don Carlo ''Don Carlos'' is an 1867 five-act grand opera composed by Giuseppe Verdi to a French-language libretto by Joseph Méry and Camille du Locle, based on the 1787 play '' Don Karlos, Infant von Spanien'' (''Don Carlos, Infante of Spain'') by Fried ...

''. It had become a 2,000 seat elliptically shaped auditorium consisting of a large orchestra section, one tier of boxes, and two wide semicircular galleries, which betray the building's amphitheatre origins. As the theatre became more closely associated with Italy's first and most important music festival, the annual

Maggio Musicale Fiorentino The Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (literal English translation: 'Florence Musical May') is an annual Italian arts festival in Florence, including a notable opera festival, under the auspices of the Opera di Firenze. The festival occurs between late A ...

which had begun in 1931 as a triennial festival and, except for the war years, became an annual one after 1937, so its name was changed once again for the festivals to the . In 2014, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino moved to the newer and larger Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. The Teatro Comunale was demolished in 2021.https://corrierefiorentino.corriere.it/firenze/notizie/cronaca/21_settembre_03/scoperchiato-l-ex-teatro-comunale-continuano-lavori-demolizione-un-pezzo-storia-fiorentina-97fb7f3c-0ccf-11ec-9603-a4ba93338529.shtml

References

*Lynn, Karyl Charna, ''Italian Opera Houses and Festivals'', Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2005. * Plantamura, Carol, ''The Opera Lover's Guide to Europe'', New York: Citadel Press, 1996.

External links

Teatro official website
{{authority control Comunale Florence Music venues completed in 1862 Theatres in Florence Event venues established in 1862 Theatres completed in 1862 1862 establishments in Italy Opera in Florence 19th-century architecture in Italy

See also

References

External links