Arcadia Productions is the largest English-speaking theatre company in Italy. The company was formed as 'La Nuova Arcadia' in 1991, and changed its name and legal status in 2000, becoming Arcadia Productions s.a.s. Arcadia is co-directed by Graham Spicer and Carlo Orlandi. The majority of the company's work is for schools, which form 97% of its public. Arcadia is part of the Teatro per Ragazzi (Children's Theatre) network in the province of Lombardy. [1] Arcadia currently has 9 productions in its repertoire, and adds a new production at the beginning most seasons. [2]
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a European country located in Southern Europe consisting of a peninsula delimited by the Alps and surrounded by several islands. Located in the middle of the Mediterranean sea and traversed along its length by the Apennines, Italy has a largely temperate seasonal and Mediterranean climate. The country covers a total area of 301,340 km2 (116,350 sq mi), and land area of 294,140 km2 (113,570 sq mi), and shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, and the enclaved microstates of Vatican City and San Marino. Italy has a territorial exclave in Switzerland (Campione) and a maritime exclave in the Tunisian Sea (Lampedusa). With around 60 million inhabitants, Italy is the fourth-most populous member state of the European Union.
The company's offices are in Milan, [3] where the premières of all new productions take place, and where the company is in residence for 10 weeks each season. Though primarily a touring company, Arcadia has two bases in Milan: the Teatro San Carlo (490 seats) opposite Santa Maria delle Grazie which houses Leonardo da Vinci's 'The Last Supper'; and Teatro La Creta (400 seats) on the western outskirts of the city. The touring schedule takes Arcadia to most of the important cities and theatres in the north and central parts of Italy: Turin, Bergamo, Brescia, Verona, Vicenza, Padua, Udine, Pordenone, Firenze, Bologna, Imperia, Rome, Lecco, Monza and Novara. Historic theatres included in the season are the [4] in Novara, the [5] in Cremona, and the Teatro Fraschini in Pavia.
Milan is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city in Italy after Rome, with the city proper having a population of 1,395,274 while its metropolitan city has a population of 3,255,773. Its continuously built-up urban area has a population estimated to be about 5,270,000 over 1,891 square kilometres. The wider Milan metropolitan area, known as Greater Milan, is a polycentric metropolitan region that extends over central Lombardy and eastern Piedmont and which counts an estimated total population of 7.5 million, making it by far the largest metropolitan area in Italy and the 54th largest in the world. Milan served as capital of the Western Roman Empire from 286 to 402 and the Duchy of Milan during the medieval period and early modern age.
Santa Maria delle Grazie is a church and Dominican convent in Milan, northern Italy, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The church contains the mural of The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, which is in the refectory of the convent.
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, more commonly Leonardo da Vinci, was an Italian polymath of the Renaissance whose areas of interest included invention, drawing, painting, sculpture, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, paleontology, and cartography. He is widely considered one of the greatest painters of all time, despite perhaps only 15 of his paintings having survived. The Mona Lisa is the most famous of his works and the most popular portrait ever made. The Last Supper is the most reproduced religious painting of all time and his Vitruvian Man drawing is regarded as a cultural icon as well. Leonardo's paintings and preparatory drawings—together with his notebooks, which contain sketches, scientific diagrams, and his thoughts on the nature of painting—compose a contribution to later generations of artists rivalled only by that of his contemporary Michelangelo.
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Giorgio Strehler was an Italian opera and theatre director.
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Francesco Giuffrè is the son of Italian actor Carlo Giuffrè. He is a composer, film dubber, screenwriter and theatre director.
Ferdinando Orlandi, also referred to as Orland and Orlando. Little is known of his early life and his year of birth is also cited as 1777. He was an Italian musician and teacher of singing who composed cantatas and sacred music, but was particularly known for his operas, not all of which have survived. He was born and died in Parma.
The Piccolo Teatro di Milano is a theatre in Milan, Italy. Founded in 1947, it is Italy's first permanent theatre, and a national "teatro stabile", or permanent repertory company, and is considered a theatre of major national and European importance. The theatre has three venues: Teatro Grassi, in Via Rovello, between Sforza Castle and the Piazza del Duomo; Teatro Studio, which was originally intended to be the theater's rehearsal hall; and Teatro Strehler, which opened in 1998 with a seating capacity of 974. Its annual programme consists of approximately thirty performances. In addition, the venue hosts cultural events, from festivals and films, to concerts, conferences, and conventions, as well as supporting the Paolo Grassi Drama School.
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The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Novara in the Piedmont region of Italy.
Anna Mombelli, born Marianna Mombelli, was an Italian opera singer who sang both mezzo-soprano and contralto roles. She is primarily known for having created the role of Siveno in Rossini's first opera Demetrio e Polibio in 1812.
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The Teatro Contavalli was an opera house and theatre located at Via Mentana #2, in Bologna, region of Emilia-Romagna, Italy. Long since utilized as a theater, the site is now occupied by offices for the Centro Italiano di Documentazione sulla Cooperazione e L' Economia Sociale.