The Tor di Nona is a neighborhood in Rome's rione Ponte . It lies in the heart of the city's historic center, between the Via dei Coronari and the Tiber River. Its name commemorates the Torre dell'Annona, a mediaeval tower which once stood there and was later converted into one of the city's most important theatres, the Teatro Tordinona, later called the Teatro Apollo.
The Torre dell'Annona was a medieval stronghold of the Orsini family and from the early 15th century acted as a pontifical prison. Prisoners included Benevenuto Cellini who experienced the dungeon's lightless cells, one of which was known as "the pit", Beatrice Cenci, and Giordano Bruno who was imprisoned here before being burned alive in Campo de' Fiori. In 1659-1660, it was used during the infamous Spana Prosecution. [1]
When the New Prison (Le Carceri Nuove ) was built in Via Giulia , Tor di Nona was rebuilt in 1667 as a theatre patronized by Queen Christina of Sweden and the best Roman company. In January 1671 Rome's first public theatre opened in the former jail. [2]
The Teatro Tordinona was inaugurated in January 1671 with the opera Scipione Affricano by Francesco Cavalli, with Antonia Coresi as Scipione and Medea, and Angelica Quadrelli as Sofonisba and Isifile. [3]
For the opening Scipione affricano by Francesco Cavalli was performed; also operas by Antonio Sartorio, Giovanni Antonio Boretto and Giovanni Maria Pagliardi. Filippo Acciaiuoli was the first director. The new pope Clement X worried about the influence of theatre on public morals. When Innocent XI became pope, things turned even worse; he made Christina's theatre into a storeroom for grain, although he had been a frequent guest in her royal box with the other cardinals.[ citation needed ] He forbade women to perform with song or acting, and the wearing of decolleté dresses. Christina considered this sheer nonsense, and let women perform in her palace. [3]
There are many perhaps unexecuted drawings for it by Carlo Fontana, bound in an album which passed into the hands of Scottish architect Robert Adam, now at Sir John Soane's Museum, London (Concise Catalogue). The theater suffered the fires and rebuildings that theaters are prone to, and was finally swept away when the embankments of the Tiber (lungoteveri) were built in 1888; this section was named Lungotevere Tor di Nona.
A free-standing white marble fountain (1925) memorializes the theater in its late-18th century transformation as the Teatro Apollo, with suitable theatrical masks, and a small trickle of water into a massive sarcophagus, in the somewhat theatrical classical style of Vittorio Emmanuele III and Benito Mussolini. As the Teatro Apollo, the largest lyric theater of Rome, the site witnessed the world premieres of two operas of Giuseppe Verdi, Il Trovatore and Un Ballo in Maschera .
Now nothing is left of the original tower nor of the theatre but their name, although in the early 1930s a smaller theatre bearing the name Teatro Tordinona was built on the Via degli Acquasparta, near the original site. It remains a going concern, presenting works by Luigi Pirandello and contemporary theater. [4]
At the end of the 19th century, the neighborhood was partially destroyed because of the construction of the Lungotevere, the alleys bordering the river. The whole north side of the street was pulled down, including buildings like the Teatro Apollo and the palazzo del Cardinale di Parma. Another blow came in the 1910s with the construction of via Zanardelli, which cut the thousand-year link with Via di Monte Brianzo. This accelerated the decay of the quarter, which in the 1940s became part of a development plan as part of the fascist demolition strategy in Rome. As in Borgo and Via Giulia, this work was halted by World War II. During the last years of World War II, the Roman "mercato nero" (black market) was located in the Tor di Nona quarter. In the postwar years, although the population had already left the quarter, a strong press campaign led by journalists like Antonio Cederna and intellectuals like Italo Insolera and Giulio Carlo Argan saved Tor di Nona from destruction. From that time until the present, the centre of Rome has been protected against further destruction.
Ponte is the 5th rione of Rome, identified by the initials R. V, and is located in Municipio I. Its name comes from Ponte Sant'Angelo, which connects Ponte with the rione of Borgo. This bridge was built by Emperor Hadrian in 134 AD to connect his mausoleum to the rest of the city. Though Pope Sixtus V changed the rione limits, so that the bridge belongs now to Borgo, not to Ponte anymore, the area has kept its name and a bridge as its coat of arms.
Sant'Angelo is the 11th rione of Rome, Italy, located in Municipio I. Often written as rione XI - Sant'Angelo, it has a coat of arms with an angel on a red background, holding a palm branch in its left hand. In another version, the angel holds a sword in its right hand and a scale in its left.
Campo Marzio is the 4th rione of Rome, identified by the initials R. IV. It belongs to the Municipio I and covers a smaller section of the area of the ancient Campus Martius. The logo of this rione is a silver crescent on a blue background.
The Via Giulia is a street of historical and architectural importance in Rome, Italy, which runs along the left (east) bank of the Tiber from Piazza San Vincenzo Pallotti, near Ponte Sisto, to Piazza dell'Oro. It is about 1 kilometre long and connects the Regola and Ponte Rioni.
San Salvatore in Lauro is a Catholic church in central Rome, Italy. It is located on a piazza of the same name in the rione Ponte. It stands on Via Vecchiarelli, just south of the Lungotevere Tor di Nona and north of via dei Coronari. It is the "national church" of the marchigiani, the inhabitants of the Marche region of Italy. The current protector of this titulus is Cardinal-Deacon Angelo Comastri.
Palazzo Borghese is a palace in Rome, Italy, the main seat of the Borghese family. It was nicknamed il Cembalo due to its unusual trapezoidal groundplan; its narrowest facade faces the River Tiber. The entrance at the opposite end of the building, the "keyboard" of the cembalo, faces onto the Fontanella di Borghese, with another in a great flanking facade to the Piazza Borghese that is extended by a slightly angled facade leading down Via Borghese towards the river. Both these entrances lead into a large courtyard on one side of which is a two level open arcade, with paired Doric and Ionic columns, that frames the garden beyond.
Scipione affricano is an opera in a prologue and three acts by Francesco Cavalli. It was designated as a dramma per musica. The Italian libretto was by Nicolò Minato, based on Livy's "The Continence of Scipio".
The Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo was a theatre and opera house in Venice located on the Calle della Testa, and takes its name from the nearby Basilica of Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice. Built by the Grimani family in 1638, in its heyday it was considered the most beautiful and comfortable theatre in the city. The theatre played an important role in the development of opera and saw the premieres of several works by Francesco Cavalli, as well as Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria and L'incoronazione di Poppea.
The Palazzo Falconieri is a palace in Rome, Italy formed in the seventeenth century as a result of remodelling by the Baroque architect Francesco Borromini. It is the home of the Hungarian Academy Rome, since its foundation in 1927. It is located between Via Giulia and Lungotevere, with entrances to both; it is near Palazzo Farnese and a few houses down and across Via Giulia from the church of Santa Caterina della Rota in the Rione of Regola. From 1814, it was occupied by cardinal Joseph Fesch, Napoleon's uncle.
Carlo Ambrogio Lonati, baptized Giovanni Ambrogio Leinati, also Lunati; was an Italian composer, violinist and singer. Francesco Maria Veracini described him in 1760 as one of the most virtuoso violinists of his century.
Lungotevere is an alley or boulevard running along the river Tiber within the city of Rome. The building of the Lungoteveres required the demolition of the former edifices along the river banks and the construction of retaining walls called muraglioni.
The Lungotevere dei Mellini is the stretch of Lungotevere that links Via Vittoria Colonna to Piazza della Libertà, in the rione Prati in Rome (Italy).
Lungotevere Gianicolense is the stretch of Lungotevere that links Piazza della Rovere to Ponte Mazzini in Rome (Italy), in the Rione Trastevere.
Via dei Coronari is a street in the historic center of Rome. The road, flanked by buildings mostly erected in the 15th and the 16th century, belongs entirely to the rione Ponte and is one of the most picturesque roads of the old city, having maintained the character of an Italian Renaissance street.
Lungotevere Tor di Nona is the stretch of Lungotevere that connects Piazza di Ponte Sant'Angelo to Piazza di Ponte Umberto I in Rome, in the rione Ponte. It was named so following the resolution of the city council of 20 July 1887.
Giovanni Filippo Apolloni was an Italian poet and librettist. Born in Arezzo, he has sometimes been referred to as "Giovanni Apollonio Apolloni", but the second given name is spurious. He served as the court poet to Ferdinand Charles, Archduke of Austria at Innsbruck form 1653 until 1659. On his return to Italy he entered the service of Cardinal Volumnio Bandinelli. After Bandinelli's death in 1667 Appolloni was in the service of the Chigi family in Rome and Siena for the rest of his life. He wrote the librettos for a number of operas, the most well-known of which were Antonio Cesti's L'Argia and La Dori, as well as several oratorios and the texts for cantatas by both Cesti and Alessandro Stradella.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Rome:
The Carceri Nuove was a prison built in the mid-17th century at the instigation of Pope Innocent X and his ideals of humanity and clemency. The New Jails were to replace other prisons throughout the city. This jail remained in operation until the construction of the judicial prison of Regina Coeli in Trastevere at the turn of the 20th century. The building, in 2020, housed the Direzione Nazionale Antimafia e Antiterrorismo.
Palazzo Sacchetti is a palazzo in Rome, important for historical and artistic reasons.
Antonia "Tonia" Coresi was an Italian opera soprano.
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