The New Theatre of Ferrara was first inaugurated on January 3, 1926, with the comedy by Umberto Giordano, La cena delle beffe. The construction of the hall took place between 1920 and 1926, while the facade was completed in 1931. The project was designed by the engineers and architects Sesto and Adamo Boari, who were brothers. In designing the theatre hall, they drew on experience gained from building structures outside the national borders, for example in Switzerland, Mexico City, and other American locations; for the New Theatre, they created the “Boari acoustic curve,” a successful outcome of acoustic experiments conducted in major European theatres, without forgetting the rich theatrical tradition of Ferrara. Righini wrote in the “Corriere padano” the day after the inauguration: “Before, I can say I had never seen it, because what I had seen once, three or perhaps four years earlier, was the skeleton of the building: an impressive skeleton in the large iron ribs that connected around a powerful framework, a kind of framework typical of industrial buildings. Last night it was something completely different: a wonderful harmony of light and profiles. I could only remember what was masked by cement, lime, and stuccos shaped with the flavor of the best Renaissance.” The theatre hall has an elliptical shape, two orders of open, superimposed galleries with rather sober decoration, consisting on the first level of a balustrade with small columns and on the second level of a continuous band adorned with stucco bas-reliefs in a late Art Nouveau style. Slender columns support the arches of the boxes on the third and final level, from which the ribs of the umbrella-shaped roof with a central skylight start. The proscenium arch, supported by slender columns decorated with capitals, features four proscenium boxes. In 2005, the theatre was closed as it required essential work to comply with safety regulations, restore the original features, and renovate the walls and stalls, as well as reopen the summer dome. Currently, the theatre functions as a multifunctional center for both theatrical and film performances, with a café and a shop on the ground floor, a characteristic gallery with shop windows giving access, through the foyer, to the theatre hall furnished with the characteristic red velvet seats and painted in shades of beige and cream; on the first floor there is also a Liberty-style refreshment room. The facade is quite sober and is arranged in two levels, with a portico on the ground floor; on the second floor, it features two large round-arched windows separated by pilasters and is topped by a thin cornice. After the adaptation and restoration works were completed, the theatre reopened on September 26, 2009, with the “SoundFe” festival, a series of trendsetting musical meetings. (Lidia Bortolotti)
Information about New Theatre of Ferrara
Piazza Trento Trieste, 52,
44121 Ferrara (Ferrara)
Source: MIBACT
