{"id":2113,"date":"2023-05-08T16:25:04","date_gmt":"2023-05-08T14:25:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/preprod.teatrosancarlo.it\/the-theatre-and-its-history\/"},"modified":"2023-06-14T20:39:25","modified_gmt":"2023-06-14T18:39:25","slug":"the-theatre-and-its-history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/preprod.teatrosancarlo.it\/en\/the-theatre-and-its-history\/","title":{"rendered":"The Theatre and its history"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row data_bf_animate=”” bf_overlay_color=”” css=”.vc_custom_1683556202219{padding-top: 5% !important;padding-bottom: 8% !important;background-color: #f5f6f6 !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/2″][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text]1737: The most ancient Opera House in the world comes to light<\/p>\n

<\/strong>\u201cDo you wish to know whether a spark of this devouring flame inspires you? then run, fly \u00a0to Naples and listen to the masterpieces of Leo, Durante Jommelli and Pergolesi\u201d.\u00a0(Jean-Jacques Rousseau,\u00a0Dictionnaire de Musique)<\/em>
\n
\nThe origins
\n<\/strong>Next to Plebiscito Square, one of the symbols of Naples, stands the shrine to Italian opera, whose foundation precedes \u00a0the Scala theatre in Milan \u00a0by 41 years and the Fenice theatre in Venice \u00a0by \u00a055 years.\u00a0It was in 1737 that the first king of Bourbon, Charles III became the promoter of a project that combined magnificence with amazement and became a clear sign of his power: a theatre! It was the architect Giovanni Antonio Medrano, the Spanish colonel brigadier stationed in Naples, who was responsible for the design. The work was contracted to Angelo Carasale who completed \u00a0the “real fabrica” in about eight months at a cost of \u00a0over 75.000 ducats, according to contemporary accounts. Medrano’s design was of a hall of 28.6 x 22.5 mt, with 184 boxes distributed in six tiers and a Royal box for ten people, for a total amount of 1379 seats.
\nThe opening evening of November, 4th, the sovereign’s name day, was celebrated with the performance of\u00a0Achilles in Sciro<\/em>\u00a0by Pietro Metastasio, with music \u00a0by Domenico Sarro and “two dances as an intermezzo” created by Francesco Aquilante and scenes by Pietro Righini. At that time, women used to play the main character of operas, so\u00a0Achilles was interpreted by Vittoria Tesi, called “La Moretta”, with the\u00a0primadonna soprano\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0Anna Peruzzi, called \u00abla Parrucchierina\u00bb and the tenor Angelo Amorevoli.<\/p>\n

The Artists, the Operas…
\n<\/strong>In the first four seasons, Carasale was the entrepreneur – impresario of the Theatre, the first “miracle – workers” to work at the behest of the king and his tastes, which showed a predilection for dance. This was followed by works from the glittering period of the eighteenth century Naples: the most popular composers were Leonardo Leo, Niccol\u00f2 Porpora, Leonardo Vinci and of course Domenico Sarro. and furthermore, Johann Adolf Hasse “the Saxon” and\u00a0Gaetano Latilla, Niccol\u00f2 Jommelli, Baldassarre Galuppi, Niccol\u00f2 Piccinni, Antonio Maria Gaspare Sacchini, Tommaso Traetta and Giacomo Tritto.
\nThe wonderful voices of Vittoria Tesi, at San Carlo since the opening night, Angelo Amorevoli, Anna Lucia De Amicis, Celeste Coltellini. The XVIII century was also the era of the “castrati singers” (“evirati cantori”), dominated by the male diva Farinelli (Carlo Broschi), and Naples crowned as favourite of the San Carlo spectators\u00a0il\u00a0Caffarello\u00a0<\/em>(Gaetano Majorano), Porpora’s pupil and one of the most famous castrati of his time, next to Gizziello (Gioacchino Conti) e Gian Battista Velluti.
\nThe XVIII century \u00a0saw also the arrival at San Carlo of Christoph Willibald Gluck, invited to Naples by the impresario Diego Tufarelli for his\u00a0Clemenza di Tito<\/em>\u00a0 1752) \u00a0preceding Johann Christian Bach that brought to San Carlo \u00a0his operas\u00a0Catone<\/em>\u00a0e\u00a0Alessandro\u00a0<\/em>between 1761 \u00a0and 1762.<\/p>\n

The Neapolitan School
\n<\/strong>The four Conservatoires of the city represented \u00a0the creative lifeblood of Neapolitan School: Naples was at the cutting edge of the European musical world and provided lively artistic nourishment for the San Carlo. It was to draw the curiosity and attention of such composers as H\u00e4ndel, Haydn and the young Mozart, who in 1778 fell victim to the fascination of a Naples “which sings and enchants”, and even the first act of his\u00a0Cos\u00ec Fan Tutte\u00a0<\/em>among the charming atmosphere of one of the city’s historical “coffee shops”.
\nAt the height of this flourishing season, the incomparable masters of the Naples school were Domenico Cimarosa and Giovanni Paisiello. In 1787, Paisiello was also entrusted \u00a0with the task \u00a0of “overseeing the Orchestra of San Carlo” and proceeded to carry out a radical reform. During the same year, Ferdinand IV commissioned Paisiello to compose the “National Hymn of the Two Sicilies”.
\n
\nSan Carlo and the 1799 Neapolitan Revolution
\n<\/strong>1799 was a very important year for Naples. It was to prove a brief interlude, byut its cry was felt all over Europe: the few months \u00a0of Jacobin fervour in which men and women, even on the stage of the opera-house, renamed the “National Theatre of San Carlo”, became promoters \u00a0of the ideals of freedom, fraternity and equality. “A patriotic \u00a0hymn was sung in the\u00a0National Theatre of San Carlo amidst the liveliest cheering for freedom” wrote\u00a0Il Monitore\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0on 27 January, referring to the Hymn \u00a0composed by Cimarosa with the inflammatory lyrics by Luigi Rossi. The opera taht was staged was\u00a0Nicaboro \u00a0in Yucatan\u00a0<\/em>by Tritto. A few months later le libertatian interlude would be bloodly suppressed \u00a0and the Bourbons returned to the throne. However, this did not prevent figures such as\u00a0Eleonora Pimentel Fonseca, Luisa Sanfelice, Domenico Cirillo, Francesco Caracciolo, Melchiorre Delfico and Cimarosa himself from leaving an indelible and inescapable mark on the painstaking process of constructing Italian identity.
\n
\nWelcome to the Nineteenth Century
\n<\/strong>\u201cThe first impression is that you have been transported to the palace of an oriental emperor. Your eyes are dazzled, your soul enraptured…\u201d\u00a0(Stehdhal,\u00a0Rome, Naples et Florence, 1817)<\/p>\n

The Barbaja Era
\n<\/strong>Naples stands out as a shining example among cities, with almost half a million inhabitants and a lively flow of visitors brought by the trend of the\u00a0Grand Tour.\u00a0<\/em>This is the point at which the San Carlo undergoes a number of changes under the direction of the Royal House’s architect and set designer Antonio Niccolini, and the “temple” becomes the city’s symbol-monument. The work was supervised by Domenico Barbaja, who had worked s a waiter in a tavern, and who\u00a0”\u00a0<\/em>managed to\u00a0fleece Milanese nobility to the extent\u00a0he\u00a0was able\u00a0to\u00a0rebuild the San Carlo Theatre by dominating gambling at\u00a0La Scala\u00a0in Milan in a single season and become its absolute lord“.\u00a0<\/em>
\n
\nThe new San Carlo
\n<\/strong>On the night of February 13th 1816, a fire destroyed a large part San Carlo theatre in less than an hour. The only parts of \u00a0the building to survive the fire were the external masonry walls. The restoration was carried on in only nine months, was directed by Antonio Niccolini who re-made, in its main features, the 1812 Hall. The Tuscan architect, in fact, still keeps the horseshoe shape of the boxes and the proscenium configuration, just adding the wonderful clock with the low-relief of the “Time and the Hours” that we can still admire. The centre of the ceiling was decorated with a painting by Antonio, Giuseppe and Giovanni Cammarano,\u00a0Apollo introducing the greatest poets in the world to Minerva.\u00a0<\/em>The artists were also responsible for the stage curtain, which was later replaced by the painting\u00a0\u00a0Parnassus<\/em>\u00a0by Giuseppe Mancinelli and Salvatore Fergola (1854). The restoration of San Carlo Theatre was completed by the side facade made on drawings by the architects Francesco Gavaudan and Pietro Gesu\u00e8 after\u00a0\u00a0the demolition of Palazzo Vecchio between (1838 -1842). As official architect of the royal theatres, Niccolini will also coordinate the next works of maintenance and restoration. Among these activities we remember the modernization of 1844 made with his son Fausto and Francesco Maria Del Giudice. The foyer we can see nowadays, in the eastern wing of the Royal Palace, was buildt in 1937 upon a design of Michele Platan\u00eca. It was completely destroyed in 1943 by a bomb and rebuilt immediately after the war.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

The San Carlo effect: a theatre of art
\n<\/strong>On the 4th October 1815 a 23-year old composer \u00a0– Gioachino Rossini – had his first work performed at San Carlo:\u00a0Elisabetta Regina d’Inghilterra <\/em>(Elizabeth, Queen of England)\u00a0It featured an all-star cast: Isabella Colbran, Andrea Nozzari and Manuel Garc\u00eda. \u201cFurore!\u201d wrote the musician the day after the premi\u00e8re in Naples, overjoyed to be topping the billing at the “theatre of the greats”. After the lukewarm reception given to\u00a0Armida<\/em>\u00a0and the success of\u00a0Elisabetta<\/em>, San Carlo stage saw other Rossinian operas like Mos\u00e8 in Egitto (<\/em>Moses in Egypt),\u00a0Ricciardo, Zoraide\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0\u00a0Ermione, La Gazza Ladra, Zelmira.\u00a0<\/em>Gaetano Donizetti, instead, wrote 17 works for San Carlo stage; amongthese we remember\u00a0Maria Stuarda, Roberto Devereux\u00a0<\/em>and the immortal\u00a0Lucia di Lammermoor<\/em>\u00a0that made its debut at San Carlo \u00a0on 26th September 1835. Interpreers like Maria Malibran, Giuditta Pasta, Luigi Lablache, Giovanni Battista Rubini and the two famous French rivals Adolphe Mourrit and Gilbert Duprez, the \u201cinventor\u201d of \u00a0do di petto<\/em>\u00a0 the stylistic emblem of the romantic singing,make the golden age of San Carlo.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n


\nThe unforgettable opening<\/strong>
\nThe San Carlo effect still resounds, almost as if it were a magic formula after the Bourbons had regained the throne. Stendhal decribed the day of the opening of the opera house on 12th January 1817, less than a year after the theatre had been devastated by fire:\u00a0There is nothing all over Europe that comes close to this theatre or even gives the faintest idea…Those who wish to be stoned need merely try to find a defect. As soon as you mention of Ferdinand, people will tell you: “He rebuilt San Carlo!”<\/em>
\nThe evening of the great reopening was marked by the staging of \u00a0Il sogno di Partenope<\/em>\u00a0(Parthenope’s dream) by Giovanni Simone Mayr, followed by a dance created by Salvatore Vigan\u00f2. The myth of the romantic dancer was created by the Austrian dancer Fanny Essler , the “Swedish” Maria Taglioni mand the Neapolitan Fanny Cerrito, one of the first coreographers whose dancing shoes are religiously guarded in the Mus\u00e9e de l’Op\u00e9ra in Paris.<\/p>\n

Paganini and \u00a0Bellini
\n<\/strong>All the greatest artists have performed, at least once in their lifetime, \u00a0have performed on the San Carlo stage, such as Niccol\u00f2 Paganini who in 1819 gave two concerts, (on 26th June and 7th July). This prestigious venue \u00a0was also \u00a0beloved by Vincenzo Bellini , who in 1826 made his debut with\u00a0Bianca e Gernando<\/em>, written especially for San Carlo. Legend has it that the young composer, still a student at the conservatoire in Naples, was forced \u00a0to abandon the reherasals at San Carlo “to sit an exam at the presence of the Royal commission”. The great Nicola Zingarelli, at the head of the prestigious institution, seeing Bellini declared: “I honestly believe it is excessive, if not pointless, to examine this young man who in a few months will have to be examined by judges who are much stricter than us: the San Carlo spectators who will see the opera he is composing\u00a0Bianca e Gerlando.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Mercadante and Verdi: the history of opera in a sort of musical duel
\n<\/strong>Saverio Mercadante deserves a special space in the golden season of the XIX century. For a while the musician from Altamura shared his slice of glory with Giuseppe Verdi who, in 1841, entered the history of San Carlo with the Neapolitan premi\u00e8re of\u00a0Oberto conte di San Bonifacio.\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0This was a particular period of successes for Mercadante who was involved in a sort of ideal music duel with the Busseto Swan. After his\u00a0Alzira,\u00a0<\/em>Verdi had the debut of\u00a0Ernani\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0in the 1846 season \u00a0that is in the same period of Mercadante’s\u00a0Gli Orazi e i Curiazi<\/em>\u00a0. The next season, 1847\/1848, focused on Nabucco<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Attila,\u00a0<\/em>and after the revolutionry interlude, with\u00a0I Lombardi alla prima Crociata,\u00a0<\/em>an absolute novelty for Naples. In the season 1849\/1850 three new works were written for San Carlo: the first one was by Verdi,\u00a0Luisa Miller<\/em>, that had its debut on 8th December 1849, signing the end of Mercadante’s career at San Carlo. After its Rome premi\u00e8re, in 1861\/1862 season\u00a0Un ballo in maschera – \u00a0<\/em>originally titled\u00a0Gustavo III\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0a work written for San Carlo and censored in 1858 – received a triumphant reception as\u00a0Aida\u00a0<\/em>would have done in 1872, with a sublime performance of Teresa Stolz in the title role. The year after, Ricordi published a\u00a0String Quartet<\/em>\u00a0– \u00a0Verdi’s only venture into chamber music – specially written for the “first soloists” of San Carlo Orchestra.<\/p>\n

T like Twentieth century
\n<\/strong>The short century, during which Europe and the world \u00a0were torn apart for many decades by terrible conflicts, began at San Carlo with the Neapolitan premi\u00e8re of\u00a0Tosca\u00a0<\/em>(1900\/1901). This was the period of Giuseppe Martucci, admired by Liszt and Anton Rubinstein and among the most significant composers of the XIX century. He was the conductor \u00a0who definitively introduced \u00a0the Wagnerian tradition at San Carlo, that begun with\u00a0Lohengrin<\/em>\u00a0in 1881 followed by\u00a0Tannh\u00e4user<\/em>\u00a0(1889) and \u00a0Die Walk\u00fcre<\/em>\u00a0(1895). He conducted also the Neapoltan premi\u00e8re of\u00a0Tristan und Isolde<\/em>\u00a0in 1907.
\nIn the same year, Strauss came to Naples for the premi\u00e8re of his\u00a0Salome<\/em>. The same great success at San Carlo was the one of operas by Puccini and by the “young school” of Mascagni and the “Neapolitans” Leoncavallo, Giordano, Cilea and Alfano.
\nThis is the century in which the role of the conductor, patrly due to the way paved by Leopoldo Mugnone, takes on an increasingly decisive \u00a0and fundamental role in the success of the show. Composers like \u00a0Honneger, Debussy, Boito, Wolf-Ferrari, Zandonai and \u00a0Pizzetti contributed to the great repertoire of Italian melodrama, a typical feature of San Carlo, that continued to stage works even in wartime, with only a brief pause of few months. Covent Garden 1946, San Carlo was the first Italian theatre to have the courage to travel abroad after the war. Meanwhile at home in Italy, other historical premi\u00e8res were getting prepared:\u00a0Ariane et Barbe-bleue<\/em>\u00a0by Dukas,\u00a0From today to tomorrow<\/em>\u00a0by Schonberg,\u00a0Carmina Burana<\/em>\u00a0and The Moon <\/em>by\u00a0Orff,\u00a0The protagonist\u00a0<\/em>by Weill, all performed between 1950 and 1960.<\/p>\n

Voices, soloists, conductors…<\/strong>
\nSome the many singers were \u00a0De Lucia and \u00a0Caruso, Di Stefano and Krauss, Del Monaco and Corelli, Tebaldi and Callas, Caniglia and Toti Dal Monte, Gigli and Tagliavini, Lauri Volpi and Schipa, Kabaivanska and Gencer, Freni and Caball\u00e8, Cossotto and Stignani, Cappuccilli, Bruson and Nucci, Blake and Ramey, Pavarotti, Domingo and Carreras.
\nAmong the soloists Paganini, Sphor, Sarasade, Heiftez, Kreisler, Rostropovic\u00c2\u008d, Benedetti Michelangeli, Pollini, Accardo and \u00a0Kremer, Ciccolini, Ughi and Maisky, Ashkenazy and Argerich, a moved Rubinstein, a very young Jacquline Du Pr\u00e9. And more Casals, Arrau, Serkin, Tortelier, Richter, Kempff, Magaloff, Yo-Yo Ma.
\nIt is impossible to mention all the musicians and great conductors that wrote the glorious history of San Carlo: from Toscanini and Stravinskij to Bernstein and Sawallisch, from Gui to Santini, from Fricsay to Scherchen, from Cluytens to Mitropoulos, from Muti to Abbado, from Busoni and Gavazzeni to Boulez, Sinopoli and Mehta, from Tate and Giulini to Celibidache and Karajan, from Furtw\u00e4ngler to B\u00f6hm who conducts the staging of\u00a0Wozzeck<\/em>\u00a0by Alban Berg. It is 26th December 1949.<\/p>\n

Dance
\n<\/strong>Dancers at San Carlo included Vassiliev and Maxinova, Rudolf Nureyev and \u00a0Alicia Alonso, Fracci and Savignano, Terabust and Ferri, Iancu, Derevianko and Bolle. Following the footsteps of the great mother of contemporary dance, Margot Fonteyn, the coreographers Roland Petit and Maurice B\u00e9jart, Pina Bausch and Karole Armitage, Trisha Brown, Twyla Tharp and Nacho Duato. In 1812 was founded the San Carlo Dancing School, the most ancient in Italy, that was \u00a0made great by artists like Pietro Hus, Salvatore Taglioni, Bianca Gallizia, Anna Razzi.<\/p>\n

San Carlo and contemporary art
\n<\/strong>The happy meeting with contemporary art has brought San Carlo to gain several Abbiati Prizes, the Italian Academy Award for opera. Kiefer, Paladino, Pomodoro, Paolini, Kentridge and \u00a0Marden, represent the present of a tradition that stretches back to the 1940s with the contribution of the futurist Enrico Prampolini for\u00a0Norma<\/em>, till the drafts of \u00a0Domenico Purificato\u00a0for\u00a0Tosca<\/em>\u00a0(1917). And also drafts by Manz\u00f9, Adami and Hockney, Ontani, Rauschenberg and Picasso.
\n
\nDirections, scenes and costumes…
\n<\/strong>The history of \u00a0San Carlo can boast a team of directors, set designers and costume designers like Frigerio and Squarciapino, Ljubimov and Borowski, Ronconi and Palli, Costa Gravas and \u00a0Aulenti, Martone, Vick and Herzog, Brockhaus, De Simone, Job and \u00a0Wertmuller, Faggioni, Pizzi, Zeffirelli, Ferretti, Pescucci and Tosi. The unforgettable \u00a0Visconti, Rossellini, Monicelli, Bolognini, Daminai, Ponnelle, Luzzati, Svoboda, De Filippo and Carmelo Bene. And \u00a0\u201cour own\u201d Nicoletti e Carosi, Rubertelli and Giustino. San Carlo hosted creations of undiscussed leaders of the fashion world,\u00a0couturiers\u00a0<\/em>who followed the path signed by Coco Chanel in France like Roberto Capucci and Emanuel Ungaro[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row data_bf_animate=”” bf_overlay_color=”” css=”.vc_custom_1683556202219{padding-top: 5% !important;padding-bottom: 8% !important;background-color: #f5f6f6 !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/2″][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text]1737: The most ancient Opera House in the world comes to light \u201cDo you wish to know whether a spark of this devouring flame inspires you? then run, fly \u00a0to Naples and listen to the masterpieces of Leo, Durante Jommelli and Pergolesi\u201d.\u00a0(Jean-Jacques Rousseau,\u00a0Dictionnaire de … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2113","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","categoria-pagina-il-san-carlo-en"],"aioseo_notices":[],"acf":{"header_trasparente":true,"newsletter_footer":true,"next_events_widget":true,"news_widget":true,"video_widget":false,"video":null,"accesso":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/preprod.teatrosancarlo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/preprod.teatrosancarlo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/preprod.teatrosancarlo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preprod.teatrosancarlo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preprod.teatrosancarlo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2113"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/preprod.teatrosancarlo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2115,"href":"https:\/\/preprod.teatrosancarlo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2113\/revisions\/2115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/preprod.teatrosancarlo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"categoria-pagina","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preprod.teatrosancarlo.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categoria-pagina?post=2113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}