Municipal Theater of Florence

Theater: appearance

Theater: main entrance

The Municipal Theater of Florence ( Italian: Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino ) is the opera house in Florence , Italy. The building, designed by Telemaco Buonaiuti ( Italian: Telemaco Buonaiuti ), was originally built as an outdoor amphitheater called Politeama Fiorentino Vittorio Emanuele , designed for 6,000 people, and was opened on May 17, 1862 by the show of the Donizetti opera “ Lucia di Lammermour ” ^[1] . The theater quickly became the center of the cultural life of the city. Having shut down after a fire, he again began working in April 1984 and received the roof in 1882. By 1911, the building had both electricity and heating ^[1] .

In 1930 the building was transferred to the city authorities, who renamed it the Municipal Theater ( Italian: Teatro Comunale ). Bombing during World War II again damaged the building. This and other problems led to its closure for three years in 1958. In May 1961, the modernized theater was reopened by a demonstration of Verdi ’s Don Carlos opera ^[1] .

Since the theater is closely associated with the first and most significant music festival in Italy, the annual Florence Music May ( Italian: Maggio Musicale Fiorentino ), which was established in 1931 with a frequency of every three years ^[2] , and since 1937, with the exception of military years, became an annual event, he changed the name again to Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino . The first festival opened at the municipal theater on April 22, 1933 with Verdi's Nabucco opera ^[2] . In the "lobby" of the theater, called Piccolo Teatro and accommodating about 600 spectators, special chamber projects of the festival take place ^[1] .