Teatro Giuseppe Verdi (the Giuseppe Verdi Theatre) is a small

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 in a wing of the Rocca dei Marchesi Pallavicino on the Piazza Giuseppe Verdi in

Busseto Busseto ( Bussetano: ; Parmigiano: ) is a ''comune'' in the province of Parma, in Emilia-Romagna in Northern Italy with about inhabitants. Its history is quite well documented back to the 10th century, and for almost five hundred years it was the ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, a town closely associated with the life of the opera composer,

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

. From the 13th century, the “rocca” or “fortress” was the family's palace; it is now the city hall after being acquired by the municipality in 1856. The theatre opened on 15 August 1868 and seats 300. Prior to 1856, a theatre existed in the same location, and while plans to build a new one were begun in 1845, nothing happened until the municipality took over. Designed by Pier Luigi Montecchini, the theatre is located on an upper level of the City Hall and is reached by a large staircase. Outside the theatre is a bust of Verdi by

Giovanni Dupré Giovanni Dupré (1 March 1817 – 10 January 1882) was an Italian sculptor, of distant French stock long settled in Tuscany, who developed a reputation second only to that of his contemporary Lorenzo Bartolini. Biography Born in Siena, Dupr� ...

. The interior is traditionally horseshoe-shaped with three rows of boxes and an elegantly designed ceiling featuring four medallions representing comedy, tragedy, melodrama, and romantic drama. Although Verdi opposed its construction (it would be “too expensive and useless in the future”, he said) and is reputed never to have set foot in it, he did contribute 10,000 lire towards the construction and maintained his own box. On opening night, operagoers dressed in green (the color in Italian is ''verde''), the men all wearing green cravats, the women wearing green dresses. Two of Verdi's operas were presented, ''

Rigoletto ''Rigoletto'' is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the 1832 play '' Le roi s'amuse'' by Victor Hugo. Despite serious initial problems with the Austrian censors who had c ...

'' and '' Un ballo in maschera''. Verdi did not attend even though he lived only two miles away at his home, the

Villa Verdi Villa Verdi is the estate house that composer Giuseppe Verdi ordered built in 1848 on farmland he had owned for four years and where he lived from that year until the end of his life. It is in the village of Sant'Agata (Villanova sull'Arda), Sant' ...

, in the village of Sant’Agata in Villanova sull'Arda. In 1913,

Arturo Toscanini Arturo Toscanini (; ; March 25, 1867January 16, 1957) was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the late 19th and early 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orche ...

conducted a performance of ''

Falstaff Sir John Falstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare and is eulogised in a fourth. His significance as a fully developed character is primarily formed in the plays ''Henry IV, Part 1'' and '' Part 2'', w ...

'' in celebration of the centenary of Verdi's birth and to raise funds for what is now a large monument of the seated composer located in the piazza. In 2001 the theatre re-painted the sets from 1913 for a revival; these were used again in October 2013 for a Verdi bi-centenary performance of ''Falstaff''.Bottazzi, A. Review from Busseto. ''Opera'', March 2014, Vol 65 No 3, p321. The theatre was extensively renovated in the 1990s. It presents a regular season of opera performances.

References

;Sources *Associazione Amici di Verdi (ed.), ''Con Verdi nella sua terra'', Busetto, 1997 (visitors' guide, in English) *Plantamura, Carole, ''The Opera Lover’s Guide to Europe'', Secaucus, New Jersey: Citadel Press, 1996.

External links

Busseto municipality website

Verdi website with photos of Busseto locations, in English
{{authority control Opera houses in Italy Theatres in Italy Giuseppe Verdi Music venues completed in 1868 Buildings and structures in the Province of Parma Performing arts venues in Emilia-Romagna Theatres completed in 1868 19th-century architecture in Italy

See also

References

External links