The Morlacchi Theater, the largest in the city, is located in the historic center of Perugia in Piazza Morlacchi, adjacent to the University of Arts and Philosophy. In 1777 the city’s bourgeoisie, led by Annibale Mariotti, decided to build a new theater in response to the nobles who had built the Teatro del Pavone; to do this, ninety families formed the “Society for the Construction of a New Theater,” which bought an old convent of nuns and entrusted the project to Perugian architect Alessio Lorenzini who equipped the theater with a horseshoe-shaped hall and five tiers of boxes for a total of twelve hundred seats. The ceiling and the curtain were decorated by Baldassarre Orsini while Carlo Spiridione Mariotti created the sixteen cameos on the vault and the medallions with Icarus sacrificing to Bacchus, Dramatic Poetry, Tragedy, Comedy, and the Pastoral Fable; Giovanni Cappelli decorated the balustrades of the boxes and painted a Bacchic scene on the ceiling of the proscenium while the stuccoes were made by Giovanni Battista Cronici. In 1874 the theater was completely renovated and reopened with the premiere of Aida. The renovation was carried out by Francesco Moretti and Matteo Tassi, Lucio Angeloni, and architect Guglielmo Calderini while Mariano Piervittori executed a new allegory representing the Arts and Letters on the ceiling and illustrated a tempera scene on the curtain with a local history theme depicting The Return of Biordo Michelotti to Perugia in 1398. The theater hosted prominent actors such as Irma Gramatica, Virgilio Talli, and Oreste Calabrese. Its activity continued until the early 20th century but declined during the Fascist years and was requisitioned by the Germans during the city’s occupation, intended for shows for their soldiers. After the war, the theater was seriously damaged, so the Municipality, to which it was ceded, financed restoration work between 1951 and 1953 consisting of redoing the roofing, modifying the stage, the fly tower, and the marble flooring of the lobby and foyer. Currently, the theater seats 785 people. The stage measures 20 meters wide and 10.5 meters deep. The proscenium arch is 10.5 meters wide. Francesco Giuseppe Baldassarre Morlacchi (Perugia, June 14, 1784 – Innsbruck, October 28, 1841) was an Italian composer and opera writer. He was one of the main architects of spreading Italian opera abroad.
Information about Morlacchi Theater
Piazza Francesco Morlacchi, 19
06121 Perugia (Perugia)
075 57542213
morlacchi@teatrostabile.umbria.it
https://www.teatrostabile.umbria.it
Source: MIBACT
