The Teatro della Pergola is an historic opera house in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. It is located in the centre of the city on the Via della Pergola, from which the theatre takes its name. It was built in 1656 under the patronage of Cardinal

Gian Carlo de' Medici Giancarlo de' Medici (24 July 1611 – 22 January 1663) was an Italian cardinal of the House of Medici. He was the second son of Grand Duke Cosimo II of Tuscany and his wife, Maria Maddalena of Austria, and the brother of Ferdinando II de' Medic ...

to designs by the architect Ferdinando Tacca, son of the sculptor

Pietro Tacca Pietro Tacca (16 September 1577 – 26 October 1640) was an Italian sculptor, who was the chief pupil and follower of Giambologna. Tacca began in a Mannerist style and worked in the Baroque style during his maturity. Biography Born in Ca ...

; its inaugural production was the

opera buffa ''Opera buffa'' (; "comic opera", plural: ''opere buffe'') is a genre of opera. It was first used as an informal description of Italian comic operas variously classified by their authors as ''commedia in musica'', ''commedia per musica'', ''dramm ...

, '' Il potestà di Colognole'' by

Jacopo Melani Jacopo Melani (6 July 1623 – 18 August 1676) was an Italian composer and violinist of the Baroque era. He was born and died in Pistoia, and was the brother of composer Alessandro Melani and singer Atto Melani. Works *1655-6: Intermedi (with ...

. The opera house, the first to be built with superposed tiers of boxes rather than raked semi-circular seating in the Roman fashion,As in the

Teatro Olimpico The Teatro Olimpico ("Olympic Theatre") is a theatre in Vicenza, northern Italy, constructed in 1580–1585. The theatre was the final design by the Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio and was not completed until after his death. The ...

of Vicenza, designed by

Andrea Palladio Andrea Palladio ( ; ; 30 November 1508 – 19 August 1580) was an Italian Renaissance architect active in the Venetian Republic. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily Vitruvius, is widely considered to be one of th ...

in the previous century. is considered to be the oldest in Italy, having occupied the same site for more than 350 years. It has two auditoria, the 'Sala Grande', with 1,500 seats, and the 'Saloncino', a former ballroom located upstairs which has been used as a recital hall since 1804 and which seats 400. Teatro della Pergola

Work on completing the interior was finished in 1661, in time for the celebration of the wedding of the future grand duke

Cosimo III de' Medici Cosimo III de' Medici (14 August 1642 – 31 October 1723) was Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1670 until his death in 1723, the sixth and penultimate from the House of Medici. He reigned from 1670 to 1723, and was the elder son of Grand Duke Ferdinan ...

, with the court spectacle ''Ercole in Tebe'' by Giovanni Antonio Boretti. Primarily a court theatre used by the Grand Dukes of Tuscany, it was only after 1718 that it was opened to the public. In this theatre the great operas of

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...

were heard for the first time in Italy, and

Donizetti Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the '' bel canto'' opera style dur ...

’s ''

Parisina ''Parisina'' is a 586-line poem written by Lord Byron. It was probably written between 1812 and 1815, and published on 13 February 1816. It is based on a story related by Edward Gibbon in his '' Miscellaneous Works'' (1796) about Niccolò III d ...

'' and ''

Rosmonda d'Inghilterra ''Rosmonda d'Inghilterra'' (''Rosamund of England'') is a ''melodramma'' or opera in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti. The Italian language, Italian libretto was written by Felice Romani originally for Carlo Coccia, Coccia's ''Rosmunda'' (1829). ...

,''

Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...

’s ''

Macbeth ''Macbeth'' (, full title ''The Tragedie of Macbeth'') is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those w ...

'' (1847) and Mascagni’s ''

I Rantzau ''I Rantzau'' (''The Rantzau Family'') is an opera in four acts by Pietro Mascagni (1892), based on a libretto by Guido Menasci and Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti, based on the play ''Les Rantzau'' (1873) by French writers Erckmann and Chatrian, af ...

'' were given their premiere productions. By the nineteenth century, La Pergola was performing operas of the best-known composers of the day including

Vincenzo Bellini Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini (; 3 November 1801 – 23 September 1835) was a Sicilian opera composer, who was known for his long-flowing melodic lines for which he was named "the Swan of Catania". Many years later, in 1898, Giu ...

Gaetano Donizetti Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the '' bel canto'' opera style dur ...

and

Giuseppe Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...

. Verdi's ''

'' was given its premiere performance at the Pergola in 1847. The Pergola's present appearance dates from an 1855–57 remodelling; it has the traditional horseshoe-shaped auditorium with three rings of boxes and topped with a gallery. It seats 1,000. It was declared a national monument in 1925 and has been restored at least twice since. Today the theatre presents a broad range of about 250 drama performances each year, ranging from

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and world ...

Neil Simon Marvin Neil Simon (July 4, 1927 – August 26, 2018) was an American playwright, screenwriter and author. He wrote more than 30 plays and nearly the same number of movie screenplays, mostly film adaptations of his plays. He has received mo ...

. Opera is only presented there during the annual

Maggio Musicale Fiorentino The Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (English: Florence Musical May) is an annual Italian arts festival in Florence, including a notable opera festival, under the auspices of the Opera di Firenze. The festival occurs between late April into June annual ...

Tommaso Sacchi Tommaso Sacchi (born 20 January 1983) is an Italian politician, curator, artistic director, Deputy-Mayor for Culture, Fashion and Design of the City of Florence. He is the Chairman of Fondazione Teatro della Toscana – Teatro della Pergola ...

is the Chairman of Fondazione Teatro della Toscana - Teatro della Pergola.

References

Notes Sources * Lynn, Karyl Charna, ''Italian Opera Houses and Festivals'', Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2005. * Plantamura, Carol, ''The Opera Lover's Guide to Europe'', New York: Citadel Press, 1996.

External links

Teatro della Pergola's official website

Includes interior photograph"Amici della Musica" regularly organize classical concerts, usually on Saturday and Sunday in the afternoon, at Teatro della Pergola
{{DEFAULTSORT:Teatro Della Pergola Opera houses in Italy Theatres in Florence Theatres completed in 1656 Music venues completed in 1656