Angelo Carasale (died 1742) was an Italian architect, active mainly in
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
.
He held the primary responsibility for designing the elaborate furnishings of the
Teatro di San Carlo
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 an opera house in Naples, Italy, connected to the Royal Palace and adjacent ...
, which was the new opera house in Naples in 1737.
Alexandre Dumas recounts the commonly repeated, yet likely apocryphal, tale that the king was so taken by the beauty of the theatre that he personally presented Carasale to the public for applause, remarking that the only thing lacking from the new theater was a private passageway for royalty from the adjacent
Royal Palace. The anecdote continues by stating that, a few hours later, at the end of the performance of the opera ''
Achille in Sciro'' by
Domenico Sarro, Carasale approached the king and notified him that the passageway was ready.
Carasale subsequently served as
impresario
An impresario (from the Italian ''impresa'', "an enterprise or undertaking") is a person who organizes and often finances concerts, plays, or operas, performing a role in stage arts that is similar to that of a film or television producer.
His ...
of the San Carlo opera house for the first four years of its existence.
Earlier, Carasale had been the architect given the task of redesigning San Carlo's predecessor, the small
San Bartolomeo theatre, in order that it might be converted into a church. He also worked on the interiors of a number of Neapolitan churches. Apparently, Carasale was imprisoned in the fortress of Sant'Elmo on charges of embezzling funds meant for the San Carlo house. Some sources says that he "died in disgrace."
[A. Howard Cady]
''Caserta: The Italian Versailles''
''The American'' magazine, Volume 40, page 154
References
Sources
*
Dumas, Alexandre, ''The Bourbons of Naples'', pub?
*de Filippis, Felice (ed.) (1951), ''Il Teatro di S. Carlo''. Naples: Ente Autonomo del Teatro di San Carlo.
*Holmes, William Holmes (1993), ''Opera Observed''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, p. 98
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carasale, Angelo
Year of birth missing
1742 deaths
18th-century Italian architects
Architects from Naples