Durante la French occupation of Bologna (1796-1816), literary and scientific institutes were founded that still exist in part today: in 1802 the Academy of Fine Arts, in 1803 the Botanical Garden and the Agricultural Garden, in 1810 the Agrarian Society.
The History of the Arena del Sole
Many convents in Bologna were closed and the religious were forcibly removed. In this congerie of changes, in a different use of urban spaces, the birth of the Arena del Sole takes place, which will occupy an area where part of the ancient convent of Santa Maria Maddalena expropriated from the Church stood, including two churches and two cloisters.
Only one cloister of the old convent remains today, from the fifteenth century, part of the bell tower, and fragments of important frescoes from the same period, detached and transported to the Pinacoteca in 1934. In 1799 it was a certain Pietro Bonini, a leather merchant, who had the idea of building an Arena to offer, during the summer months, in the afternoon until sunset, shows of all kinds exploiting daylight.
He entrusted the project to the Milanese professor Carlo Asparri who in 1810 built the Arena called “del Sole” (of the Sun). Fortunately, an engraving from 1825 by C. Savini survives indicating how the Arena was conceived, since the original cavea was destroyed and all construction plans lost. Asparri taught architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts and had been a student of master Filippo Antolini who designed the Foro Bonaparte in Milan and whose drawings seem to have inspired Asparri. A certain affinity of the Bologna Arena was also noted with the project for a Milanese theater by engineer Pistocchi.
The Structure of the Arena del Sole
The Arena del Sole was built with a semicircular stepped structure revealing the influence of ideas proclaimed by Francesco Milizia, one of the most rigorous supporters of Neoclassical theories inspired by Enlightenment thought. The most suitable place for public performances had, according to Milizia, to abolish class differences and allow everyone to enjoy the show in the same way. No more royal boxes, neither first nor second order, no side balconies or galleries; it was necessary to return to the simplicity of ancient theaters. But the Arena was not built by strictly following Milizia‘s indications because, from Savini‘s engraving, it can be seen that it had a very broad horseshoe-shaped plan rather than semicircular.
The Audience Area of the Arena del Sole
The audience area of the Arena del Sole was surrounded by steps limited by a wall imitating rustication. Above it was a gallery decorated with false niches. The decorations were painted by Luigi Cirri of Prato. In front of the entrance to the Arena opened a large garden.
The Arena was inaugurated in July 1810 with a performance by an anonymous author, Corradino d’Este at the tournament or the hero of the Rubicone, performed by the Compagnia Comica Zuccato. The Arena could hold up to two thousand spectators; this number should not seem unrealistic because once, as was customary even in opera theaters, people crowded stuffed into every free corner.
Since five years earlier Napoleon Bonaparte, having made new changes to the city’s layout, had also transformed the Montagnola, next to the market square, into an elegant promenade, the Arena immediately became a centrally located and successful structure, soon imitated in other neighborhoods of the city.
The Arena became the quintessential popular theater with prose performances, dramas, carnival balls, Cistercian shows, illusion shows, and juggling acts. In 1835, for the first time, the company of Luigi Taddei requested to cover the audience area with a canopy for evening performances. In 1887-1888 the theater closed for a first total renovation for the creation of modern Via Indipendenza. It was planned to create a facade (which is the only nineteenth-century structure of the Arena preserved intact to this day) designed and built by engineer Gaetano Rubbi in 1888. The exterior did not manage to match the interior as it has much less grand forms.
The Facade of the Arena del Sole
The facade is entirely made up of a tall and powerful portico resting on three large arches supported by paired columns with Corinthian capitals. A unifying element of the facade is the high projecting cornice which decorates the giant inscription running in a frieze above the arches. It reads, «LUOGO DATO AGLI SPETTACOLI DIURNI» (“PLACE GIVEN TO DAYTIME SHOWS”), pompously characterizing from the outside the peculiarity of the place of representation – even if occasional evening programming had already begun. Crowning the facade, in the manner of a pediment, is a “crest” with five statues of academic taste, among which at the center sits the winged figure of Apollo flanked on the sides by seated figures, Poetry (on the left) and Tragedy (on the right), made of cement by sculptor Alfredo Neri.
In 1949, having decided to transform the Arena into an evening theater and cinema, a retractable roof was built and all the steps deemed unsuitable were demolished. In 1950, it reopened to the public with the screening of the film “Cavalcade of Heroes”: for twenty years it was predominantly a cinema. In the 1970s the architect Cervellati studied a project envisaging the transformation of the Arena into a cultural center with several theaters and cinemas, a library and film archive, multipurpose rooms, and meeting places. The project then seemed too ambitious and it was decided to adapt the Arena simply as a theater hall.
The Municipality of Bologna Purchases the Arena del Sole
In May 1984, the Municipality of Bologna purchased the building from the Opera Pia Giovanni XXIII to carry out a large renovation project, as Bologna lacked an adequate prose theater. The first phase of work began in August 1984 and lasted until December of the same year with masonry and stage safety system installations, allowing the theater to reopen for performances under the artistic direction of Yuri Lubimov.
In June 1986, a second phase of work began that ended two years later, with the restoration and renovation of the theater hall, the foyer, and the rehearsal room. On that occasion, for the first time in Italy, a modern modular wooden stage with hydraulic pistons was built that allows the audience floor to be raised to the stage level, doubling the performance area from thirteen to twenty-five meters. For this reason, the metal grid for scene movements also extends over part of the audience space. Side balconies, the first circular tier with four rows of seats, surmounted by two tiers of boxes and a stepped gallery with five rows of seats, were built. All services and a small underground theater hall were constructed.
The third phase of work began in 1991. From that year, all installations and furnishings, as well as the adjacent theater structures, were completed. New horizontal structures for floors, the theater hall roof, various levels, installations, and vertical fireproof walls were created. The stage was equipped with two large dressing rooms and eight medium-sized ones for artists; plus a large dressing room for about fifteen actors. Removing a proscenium wall forms the “mystic gulf” that can accommodate about seventy orchestra members. Above the stage are skylights equipped with automatic thermal opening devices. The main hall accommodates 952 spectators while the small hall seats 220 to 300 spectators. Acoustic architectural adaptations were carried out by Drs. G. Righini and R. Spagnolo from the Galileo Ferraris Institute in Turin.
The Current Arena del Sole
The theater, stage, and small hall are equipped with air heating. Inside the theater are: a ticket office, three cloakrooms, the Director’s offices, two cafes, four rooms used as lounges, and exhibition spaces located in the corridors. The current Arena is a theatrical organism with a certain flexibility in line with the aspirations of contemporary theater, while in the design phase the architect responsible for the renovation, Gianfranco Dellerba, was inspired in the layout by the Renaissance theater of Sabbioneta and the Farnese Theater in Parma for the U-shaped cavea with terraces.
The engineer Felice Monaco of the Municipality’s technical office directed the works. The architect Emilio Battisti took care of the interior furnishings, in which special care was devoted to the use of materials but without wanting them to seem too precious, such as solid wood, aqua green velvet, glass, and iron. On the south side, the theater has a stained glass window over the fifteenth-century cloister, an inner courtyard, and to the north a courtyard on via San Giuseppe.
The Theater of the Arena del Sole
The theater of the Arena del Sole was inaugurated on February 20, 1995, with a grand opening party filled with celebrities. Dedicated to the city of Bologna, the evening featured Dario Fo performing The Tumult of Bologna and singers Francesco Guccini, Luca Carboni, Andrea Mingardi, Stadio, Jimmy Villotti, and Steve Grossman. The theater currently has a program dedicated to prose and dance performances.
(information by Caterina Spada)
