Exterior of the Teatro di San CarloTop floor of the Teatro di San CarloInterior view on to the royal boxView from the royal boxRoyal coat of arms above proscenium
The Real Teatro di San Carlo ("Royal Theatre of Saint Charles"), as originally named by the Bourbon monarchy but today known simply as the Teatro (di) San Carlo, is a historic opera house in Naples, Italy, connected to the Royal Palace and adjacent to the Piazza del Plebiscito. It is the oldest continuously active venue for opera in the world, having opened in 1737, decades before either Milan's La Scala or Venice's La Fenice.[1][2]
The opera season runs from late November to July, with the ballet season from December to early June. The house once had a seating capacity of 3,285,[3] but has now been reduced to 1,386 seats.[4] Given its size, structure and antiquity, it was the model for theatres that were later built in Europe.
History of the opera house
The Real Teatro di San Carlo was commissioned by the Bourbon King Charles VII of Naples (Carlo VII in Italian), who wanted to endow Naples with a new and larger theatre to replace the old, dilapidated, and too-small Teatro San Bartolomeo of 1621, which had served the city well, especially after Scarlatti had moved there in 1682 and had begun to create an important opera centre which existed well into the 18th century.[5]
Thus, the San Carlo was inaugurated on 4 November 1737, the king's name day, with the performance of the opera Domenico Sarro's Achille in Sciro, based on the 1736 libretto by Metastasio which had been set to music that year by Antonio Caldara. As was customary, the role of Achilles was played by a woman, Vittoria Tesi, called "Moretta"; the opera also featured soprano Anna Peruzzi, called "the Parrucchierina" and tenor Angelo Amorevoli. Sarro also conducted the orchestra in two ballets as intermezzi, created by Gaetano Grossatesta, with scenes designed by Pietro Righini.[1] The first seasons highlighted the royal preference for dance numbers, and featured among the performers famous castrati.
In the late 18th century, Christoph Willibald Gluck was called to Naples by the impresario Tufarelli to direct his 1752 Clemenza di Tito at the theatre, and Johann Christian Bach in 1761-62 brought two operas, Catone in Utica and Alessandro nell'Indie.
1737: Construction of the Teatro di San Carlo
Domenico Sarro
The new opera house was designed by Giovanni Antonio Medrano, a military architect, chief engineer of the kingdom, and the "Major Regius Praefectus Mathematicis Regni Neapolitani" (Major Royal Governor of Mathematics of the Kingdom of Naples). Angelo Carasale, the former director of the San Bartolomeo, was primarily responsible for designing the elaborate furnishings of the Teatro di San Carlo. The horseshoe-shaped auditorium is the oldest in the world. It was built for 75,000 ducats. The hall was 28.6 meters long and 22.5 meters wide, with 184 boxes, including those of proscenium, arranged in six orders, plus a royal box capable of accommodating ten people, for a total of 1,379 seats. Including a standing room, the theatre could hold over 3,000 people. The fastidious composer and violinist Louis Spohr reviewed the size and acoustic properties of this opera house very thoroughly on 15 February 1817 and concluded that:
there is no better place for ballet and pantomime. Military movements of infantry and cavalry, battles, and storms at sea can be represented here without falling into the ludicrous. But for opera, itself, the house is too large. Although the singers, Signora Isabella Colbran, [Prima Donna of the Teatro San Carlo opera company and Rossini's future wife], and the Signori Nozzari, Benedetti, etc., have very strong voices, only their highest and most stentorian tones could be heard. Any kind of tender utterance was lost.[6]
Much admired for its architecture, its gold decorations, and the sumptuous blue upholstery (blue and gold being the official colours of the Bourbons), the San Carlo was now the biggest opera house in the world.[7] Concerning the power of the existing Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Beauvert notes that the design of the house, with its 184 boxes lacking any curtains was so that "no one could avoid the scrutiny by the sovereign" who had his private access from the Royal Palace.[7]
In 1809, Domenico Barbaia was appointed manager of the royal opera houses in Naples and remained in charge until 1841.[8] He soon established a reputation for innovative and dazzling productions, attracting the public and leading singers to the opera house.
February 1816 to January 1817: Destruction by fire and rebuilding
Teatro San Carlo, Naples after the 13 Feb 1816 fire
On 13 February 1816, a fire broke out during a dress rehearsal for a ballet performance and quickly spread to destroy a part of the building.[9]
On the orders of King Ferdinand IV, another Bourbon monarch and son of Charles VII, who used the services of Antonio Niccolini, Barbaia was able to rebuild the opera house within ten months. It was rebuilt as a traditional horseshoe-shaped auditorium with 1,444 seats and a proscenium, 33.5m wide and 30m high. The stage was 34.5m deep. Niccolini embellished in the inner of the bas-relief depicting "Time and the Hour".
Teatro San Carlo in 1830
The central frescoed ceiling painting of Apollo presenting to Minerva the greatest poets of the world was painted by Antonio, Giuseppe e Giovanni Cammarano.
On 12 January 1817, the rebuilt theatre was inaugurated with Johann Simon Mayr's Il sogno di Partenope. Stendhal attended the second night of the inauguration and wrote: "There is nothing in all Europe, I won't say comparable to this theatre, but which gives the slightest idea of what it is like..., it dazzles the eyes, it enraptures the soul...".[citation needed]
In 1844, the opera house was re-decorated under Niccolini, his son Fausto, and Francesco Maria dei Giudice. The main result was the change in appearance of the interior to the now-traditional red and gold.[1]
Late 19th century, post World War II, and 21st century renovations
Apart from the creation of the orchestra pit, suggested by Verdi in 1872, the installation of electricity in 1890, the subsequent abolition of the central chandelier, and the construction of the new foyer and a new wing for dressing rooms, the theatre underwent no substantial changes until the repair of the bombing damage in 1943.
During World War II, the opera house was damaged by bombs. Following the liberation of Naples in October 1943, Peter Francis of the Royal Artillery organized repairs to the damaged foyer and, three weeks later, reopened the building with a musical revue.[10] With the building in a fit state for performances, more musicians and singers made themselves available, and the first opera performance was held on 26 December 1943, a matinee presentation of Puccini's La bohème. Francis stayed on for another two years, producing 30 operas. On 9 July 1946, the American baritone Lawrence Tibbett sang the title role in Rigoletto before an audience that included senior military figures of the Mediterranean Theater of Operations and troops of the Allied Forces.
The renovated auditorium in 2009
By the start of the twenty-first century, the opera house was showing its age with outmoded stage machinery, inadequate visitor facilities, and lack of air conditioning. In response, the Campania regional government funded a €67 million renovation over six months in 2008 and six months in 2009, including restoration of the décor and the creation of a new rehearsal hall. As noted in Gramophone magazine, the opera house reopened on 27 January 2010 with Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito, the 254th anniversary of the composer's birth: "The renovation work was completed last year under the direction of architect Elisabetta Fabbri and is intended to return Teatro San Carlo to its condition following Antonio Niccolini's rebuilding after the fire of 1816. The project....involved 300 workers day and night."[11]
Similarly, the most prominent singers performed and consolidated their fame at the San Carlo. These included Lucrezia Anguiari, called "La Cocchetta", the renowned castratiGiovanni Manzuoli, Caffarelli (Gaetano Majorano), Farinelli (Carlo Broschi), Gizziello (Gioacchino Conti) and Gian Battista Velluti, the last castrato. Caffarelli, Farinelli, and Gizziello were products of the local conservatories of Naples.
After composing Zelmira, Rossini left Naples with Colbran, who had previously been the lover of Domenico Barbaia. The couple were married shortly thereafter.
To replace Rossini, Barbaja first signed up Giovanni Pacini and then another rising star of Italian opera, Gaetano Donizetti. As artistic director of the royal opera houses, Donizetti remained in Naples from 1822 until 1838, composing sixteen operas for the theatre, among which Maria Stuarda (1834), Roberto Devereux (1837), Poliuto (1838) and the famous Lucia di Lammermoor (1835), written for soprano Tacchinardi-Persiani and tenor Duprez.
Giuseppe Verdi was also associated with the theatre. In 1841, his Oberto Conte di San Bonifacio was performed there, and in 1845 he wrote his first opera for the theatre, Alzira; a second, Luisa Miller, followed in 1849. His third should have been Gustavo III, but the censor made such significant changes that it was never performed in that version nor under that title (until a re-created version was given in 2004). It was later performed in Rome with significant revisions to the plot and its location, while the title became Un ballo in maschera.
Among the conductors and composers appointed by the Teatro San Carlo was the famous and eccentric French harpist and composer Nicolas-Charles Bochsa, who was accompanied by his lover, the English prima donnaAnna Bishop, with whom he was touring the world. He conducted several operas (1844–1845) in the San Carlo with Anna Bishop as prima donna.[12] She sang there 327 times in 24 operas.
Decline and revival by late 19th century
The unification of Italy in 1861 led to Naples losing its status as the musical center of Italy and the home of the country's leading opera house, La Scala, as power and wealth moved northwards. By 1874, the fall in performance income led to the opera house's closing for a year. Its fortunes were able to recover due to the continued support in the latter half of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century by Giacomo Puccini and other composers of verismo operas, such as Pietro Mascagni, Leoncavallo, Giordano, and Cilea, who staged their works here.
In the late nineteenth century, the house created its own in-house orchestra under Giuseppe Martucci, which helped attract several respected conductors, including Arturo Toscanini, Pietro Mascagni, and composer Richard Strauss, whose influence expanded the opera house's repertoire.
One performer who did not appear in Naples from 1901 onward was Naples-born Enrico Caruso, who, after being booed by a section of the audience during a performance of L'elisir d'amore, vowed never to return.[10]
Gioachino Antonio Rossini was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces and some sacred music. He set new standards for both comic and serious opera before retiring from large-scale composition while still in his thirties, at the height of his popularity.
This is a list of music-related events in 1816.
Isabella Angela Colbran was a Spanish opera soprano and composer. She was known as the muse and first wife of composer Gioachino Rossini.
Domenico Barbaia was best known as an opera Italian impresario.
Bianca e Fernando is an opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini.
Theatres for diverse musical and dramatic presentations began to open in Naples, Italy, in the mid-16th century as part of the general Spanish cultural and political expansion into the kingdom of Naples, which had just become a vicerealm of Spain. None of the early theaters still function as such, having been replaced by later facilities from the mid-18th century onwards. Neapolitan theatres first built in the 16th and 17th centuries include:
Filippo Galli was an Italian opera singer who began his career as a tenor in 1801 but went on to become one of the most acclaimed basses of the bel canto era, with a voice known for its wide range, extreme agility, and expressivity, and a remarkable gift for acting.
Domenico Reina was a Swiss bel canto tenor, notable for creating roles in the operas of Vincenzo Bellini, Gaetano Donizetti, Saverio Mercadante, and other Italian composers.
Eugenia Tadolini was an Italian operatic soprano. Admired for the beauty of her voice and stage presence, she was one of Donizetti's favourite singers. During her career she created over 20 leading roles, including the title roles in Donizetti's Linda di Chamounix and Maria di Rohan and Verdi's Alzira. She was born in Forlì and studied music there and in Bologna before making her debut in Florence in 1828. She sang in all of Italy's leading opera houses, as well as in Paris, Vienna, and London before retiring from the stage in 1852. She spent her remaining years first in Naples, where she had been the Teatro San Carlo's reigning prima donna for many years, and then in Paris, where she died of typhoid fever at the age of 63. From 1827 to 1834, she was married to the Italian composer and singing teacher, Giovanni Tadolini.
Raffaele Mirate was a celebrated Italian operatic tenor who had an active career from the 1830s through the 1860s. Known for his intelligent phrasing and bright and powerful vocal timbre, he was regarded as an outstanding interpreter of the tenor roles in the early and middle period operas of Giuseppe Verdi. He notably created the role of the Duke of Mantua in the world premiere of Verdi's Rigoletto in 1851. He was also a highly regarded interpreter of bel canto roles, excelling in the operas of Vincenzo Bellini, Gaetano Donizetti, and Gioachino Rossini.
Carmen Giannattasio is an Italian operatic soprano. She studied at the Conservatoire Domenico Cimarosa of Avellino and simultaneously at the University of Salerno. From 1999 to 2001 she attended the school for young opera singers at La Scala, Milan. In 2002 she won first and audience prize at Operalia competition in Paris.
Carmela Remigio is an Italian operatic soprano.
Antonino Fogliani is an Italian conductor.
Rossini! Rossini! is a 1991 Italian biographical film written and directed by Mario Monicelli. It depicts real life events of composer Gioachino Rossini. Monicelli replaced Robert Altman, who was experiencing differences with the producers. The film won the David di Donatello for Best Costumes.
L'ultimo giorno di Pompei is an opera in two acts composed by Giovanni Pacini to an Italian libretto by Andrea Leone Tottola. It premiered to great success at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples on 19 November 1825 followed by productions in the major opera houses of Italy, Austria, France, and Portugal. When Pacini's popularity declined in the mid-19th century, the opera was all but forgotten until 1996 when it received its first performance in modern times at the Festival della Valle d'Itria in Martina Franca. L'ultimo giorno di Pompei influenced either directly or indirectly several other 19th-century works, most notably Karl Bryullov's 1833 painting, The Last Day of Pompeii.
Francesco Tortoli was an Italian scenographer, active in Naples from 1808 at the city's principal theatres—Teatro San Carlo, Teatro del Fondo and Teatro dei Fiorentini. He was the creator of sets for numerous productions including those for the world premieres of Rossini's La gazzetta, Otello, Armida, Mosè in Egitto, and La donna del lago. Tortoli was born in Florence and died in Naples of cholera at the age of 35.
Sebastiano Biancardi, known by the pseudonym Domenico Lalli, was an Italian poet and librettist. Amongst the many libretti he produced, largely for the opera houses of Venice, were those for Vivaldi's Ottone in villa and Alessandro Scarlatti's Tigrane. A member of the Accademia degli Arcadi, he also wrote under his arcadian name "Ortanio". Lalli was born and raised in Naples as the adopted son of Fulvio Caracciolo but fled the city after being implicated in a bank fraud. After two years wandering about Italy in the company of Emanuele d'Astorga, he settled in Venice in 1710 and worked as the "house poet" of the Grimani family's theatres for the rest of his career. In addition to his stage works, Lalli published several volumes of poetry and a collection of biographies of the kings of Naples. He died in Venice at the age of 62.
Rossini is a 1942 Italian musical drama film directed by Mario Bonnard and starring Nino Besozzi, Paola Barbara, Camillo Pilotto, Armando Falconi and Greta Gonda. It depicts adult life events of Italian composer Gioachino Rossini. The film is also known as Arte ed amori di Giaocchino Rossini.
Eliodoro Bianchi was an Italian operatic tenor and later a prominent singing teacher. Born in Cividate al Piano and trained in Naples under Giacomo Tritto, he made his stage debut in 1793. Amongst the many roles, he created during the course of his 40-year career were Baldassare in Ciro in Babilonia and the King of Sweden in Eduardo e Cristina, both of which were composed by Rossini expressly for Bianchi's voice. He retired from the stage in 1835 and spent his later years in Palazzolo sull'Oglio, where he died at the age of 75.
Luigi Capotorti was an Italian composer of both sacred and secular music. He was the maestro di cappella of several Neapolitan churches; the composer of ten operas, five of which premiered at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples; and a teacher of composition and singing whose students included Stefano Pavesi and Saverio Mercadante. Born in Molfetta, he studied violin and composition at the Conservatorio di Sant'Onofrio in Naples and spent his entire career in that city. In his later years, Capotorti retired to San Severo, where he died at the age of 75.
↑ Progetto di ristrutturazione del Teatro San Carlo e rifacimento impianti di sicurezza antincendio e rilevazione fumi http://www.vvfnapoli.it/sancarlo.php
Beauvert, Thierry (1985), Opera Houses of the World, The Vendome Press, New York, 1995. ISBN0865659788
Gubler, Franz (2012). Great, Grand & Famous Opera Houses. Crows Nest: Arbon. ISBN978-0987282026.
Lynn, Karyl Charna (2005), Italian Opera Houses and Festivals, Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press, Inc. ISBN0810853590
Spohr, Louis, (trans./ed. Henry Pleasants, 1961), The Musical Journeys of Louis Spohr, Journey to Switzerland and Italy 1815–17. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press ISBN978-0806104928
Further reading
Allison, John (ed.) (2003), Great Opera Houses of the World, supplement to Opera Magazine, London
Eisenbeiss, Philip (2013), Bel Canto Bully: The Life of the Legendary Opera Impresario Domenico Barbaja. London: Haus Publishing, ISBN978-1908323255
Zeitz, Karyl Lynn (1991), Opera: the Guide to Western Europe's Great Houses, Santa Fe, New Mexico: John Muir Publications. ISBN0945465815
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