“A most respectable opera for the town of Cesenatico is the Theater, whose construction began in 1863 and was completed in 1865 at a cost of L. 80,000. The architect was the municipal engineer Mr. Candido Panzani from Gambettola, and the works were supervised by engineer Mr. Enrico Bocchini from Cesena. It is located in the center of the town and occupies an area of 488.99 square meters” (cit. Monograph..1866). It was inaugurated on the evening of July 11, 1865, as indicated by the plaque at the entrance. Two other plaques commemorate Ermete Zacconi on the evenings of August 8 and 10, 1908, and the restorations of 1926. The neoclassical terracotta façade consists of a high plinth with continuous banded bosses up to the string course. Above this rises a body with decorative pilasters with Ionic bases and capitals, ending with a dentilled entablature from which the central tympanum stands out. Besides the central door, there are two windows and two side doors with entry and emergency exit on the ground floor. On the first floor, three front windows and two side windows illuminate the rooms that housed the local music school. The atrium giving access to the stalls and the first-tier boxes is flanked by two side rooms for various services. The same layout is repeated on the first floor, where the foyer is located. In the central hall, with a horseshoe-shaped cavea, there are two tiers of fifteen boxes each, including the ‘barcacce’ and the gallery. The ceiling of the stalls was decorated with a large wooden rosette in the center. Around the rosette in the circular area was painted a large lace veil. Elegantly executed, at its edges were six medallions with busts on a gold background representing illustrious men from the history of theatre, including Goldoni, Metastasio, Donizetti. “The decorations by painters Bellani and Canepa from Lugano, the carvings by Cuccoli from Bologna, the plaster bas-reliefs by sculptor Vittorio Rambelli from S. Giovanni in Persiceto, the gildings by Leonida Morsiani from Cesena, and the masterfully painted scenes by Pirro Rota from Forlì” are remembered (cit. Monograph..1866). The curtain, the work of the painter from Forlì Pompeo Randi, depicted Duke Valentino and his entourage in conversation with Leonardo da Vinci, the designer of the port-canal of Cesenatico. Lost after the war, the 19th-century curtain, of which documentation was preserved, has been brought back to life thanks to the work of some students from the Scenography Course at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts (Paola Galli, Giulia Galli, and Stefania Lomi) who, guided by Gastone Mariani, faithfully reproduced the setting and characters identical to the original but with variations suggested by the different functionality of the work in today’s theater. The frames and friezes that framed the scene (typically 19th century) were therefore removed to allow a more flexible and direct integration into today’s stage system. At the same time, the color tones were lowered compared to the documentation for the original, favoring greater harmony with the current context of the hall, partly deprived of the 19th-century decorations. The conservation conditions of the surfaces, during the first census conducted by the Institute for Cultural Heritage, were truly serious: particularly deteriorated, and in most cases lost, were the ceiling decorations of the hall, the carved and painted wooden columns supporting the first and second tiers of boxes, and the decorations on the parapets. From 1981 to 1992, under the direction of architect Augusto Savini, conservation restorations were carried out on the building (walls, roof), while inside the floors of the stalls and stage were completely rebuilt. Expansion works at the back and on the side of the building adjoining the municipal courtyard allowed for the creation of restrooms, dressing rooms, and storage. The intervention on the decorations consisted of restoring the external decorations of the boxes except for those on the first tier, for which part of the original ornamentation was recovered. For the ceiling, once finely painted and now definitively lost, it was deemed inappropriate to reconstruct the original decoration, opting to treat the surfaces with neutral materials. The visual impact on the hall is currently pleasant, making this small theater a true gem, although the ensemble, with its chromatic and decorative highlights, will in time rediscover the light and atmosphere typical of this particular type of environment. The theater, owned by the municipality, is part of the circuit of small and medium theaters of Romagna managed by the “Accademia Perduta – Romagna Teatri” Cooperative of Ravenna and Forlì for all theatrical production and programming activities, while the artistic direction is entrusted to Sandro Pascucci. The theater is currently operational and hosts prose seasons, dialect theater, children’s theater, and a “school theater” season for schools in Cesenatico and the surrounding area. (Nadia Ceroni / Lidia Bortolotti)
Information about Municipal Theater of Cesenatico
Via Mazzini 10-12,
47042 Cesenatico (Forlì-Cesena)
Source: MIBACT
