Il Teatro Ducale delle Saline, also generally referred to as the “small” or “comedies” theater, was built in August 1593, thanks to the contribution of a wealthy merchant from Piacenza: Pietro Martire Bonvino. For this purpose, the spaces located in the upper area of a building, used at ground floor as a warehouse for salt and duty, located near the church of San Protaso, long since disappeared, not far from the “dei Cavalli” square, at the corner of the current Romagnosi and Cavour streets, were suitably adapted. No modification or decoration was made to externally indicate the adaptation, as it is said to have maintained the appearance of a fortress, massive and belligerent with surviving battlements. However, the interiors are better documented thanks to the clear plans preserved at the Passerini Landi Library of Piacenza and elaborated in 1758 by Francesco Zanetti, who was in charge of restoring the theater, declared dangerous since 1746; another plan is kept at the State Archive of Parma, Maps and drawings collection, 23/35, dated 21 February 1743. The theater, of small size, had a hall with a “U” layout, stalls, and three tiers of overlapping boxes, the first resting on a series of wooden columns. Each tier consisted of twenty-six boxes, besides the ducal one; a last tier, called “dei rondoni,” was intended for the common people. The stage was rather small and lacking adequate rooms for the needs of performances and actors, as well as space for the orchestra, while services for the public were present, such as a tavern adjacent to the stalls and a café on the first tier. Nothing is known beyond indications related to the purely architectural structure, for example whether it had plastic or pictorial decorations. It certainly remained active until 1804 and, from an appraisal drawn up by Lotario Tomba three years later, it was still in fair condition. The origin of the Teatro Ducale di Palazzo Gotico, also more generally called Piazza, would date back to May 1644 when, on the occasion of celebrations for the peace between Duke Odoardo and Pope Urban VIII, among the organized events particular importance was given to the staging, in the Hall of the City Hall still called the “Gotico,” of the tragicomedy La finta pazza by Giulio Strozzi with music by Francesco Sacrati and the performance of the Accademici Febiarmonici. It was most likely the first staging of a drama with music in Piacenza; and the success of the initiative encouraged the idea of building a true theater in the hall of this palace. The idea materialized in 1646, under the direction of the Piacenza architect Cristoforo Rangoni, called Ficcarelli, this theater hall was set up. With its structure of four tiers of boxes, made of wood painted to imitate marble, decorated with figures and stuccoes in gold and colors, and with a solid plank curtain on which, it seems, the city of Piacenza was depicted, wandering in color and rich in gold, bright with lights, a stage box equipped with machines suitable for the complicated seventeenth-century stagings; it qualified as a theater destined to play a celebratory and elite role that therefore excluded the paying public. This fact would be confirmed, according to the gathered documentation, also by the sporadic activity that took place there, consisting exclusively of important productions of dramas with music and ended around 1728. Among the most remarkable theatrical events is to be remembered the staging of Coriolanus by Cristoforo Ivanovich in May 1669 during public celebrations desired by Ranuccio II to honor illustrious guests. The grand spectacle required, starting from January of the same year, significant and appropriate adaptation interventions of the theater under the direction of the Venetian theatrical engineer Gasparo Mauro. The so-called “di Cittadella” Theater would be, in chronological order, the third ducal theater of Piacenza. Most likely it was built in the second half of the seventeenth century in the building next to the unfinished Rocchetta Viscontea, connected to the contiguous Palazzo Farnese by a skywalk. Moreover, it was practically adjacent to over three hundred wooden shops built by Ranuccio II for trading goods during fairs of currency and merchandise. Also of this theater, the essential characteristics and space distribution are known thanks to plans drawn by Zanetti in 1758 (another ink and watercolor plan dated eighteenth century is kept at the State Archive of Parma, Maps and drawings collection, 23/59). Larger and better organized than the Teatro delle Saline, the hall featured a usual elongated U-shaped plan with a soft full arch curvature, five tiers of boxes, the last one usually called “dei rondoni” corresponded to the current gallery (for a total of ninety-six boxes distributed over the first four tiers), and there were accessory spaces for the public such as the foyer and café. The large stage was equipped with necessary services, rooms for actors, tailoring, etc., as well as space for the orchestra. Most likely, it was in this theater that, under the patronage of Ranuccio II, a significant operatic revival took place linked, among others, to the scenic activity of the Galli Bibiena family. Performances usually took place in April and September, generally coinciding with important fairs of merchandise and changes. Among the most important musical events of this theater is recorded the performance of Scipione in Cartagine nuova by Carlo Innocenzo Frugoni, music by Geminiano Gicomelli, with the famous singer Carlo Broschi called Farinello as protagonist. The show was part of a series of festive events in honor of Enrichetta d’Este, wife of Antonio Farnese, on her first entry into Piacenza. On this occasion, the theater was also suitably restored and described in a celebratory eclogue composed by the Arcadian shepherd Bartolomeo Casali, from whose verses we know, among other things, that the stalls “[…] have immense rows of seats./ Where the noble circle ends/ You see a great curtain hanging/ And on it pilgrim/ Wonders are understood:/ There is a horse with wings on its back/ There are nymphs who dwell/ On the clouds there are things/ To laugh marvelously.” At the end of the eighteenth century, the Teatro delle Saline was now dilapidated though still used, while that of Cittadella was still the most important and aristocratic place for public performances. The city was left without it on Christmas Eve 1798 when a violent fire completely destroyed this last theater. It was first a certain Pietro La Boubé, a French citizen enriched in Piacenza through shrewd speculations, who requested permission from the Government to build a new theater (which was to be erected in an area within the same block where the Municipal theater later arose), enclosing a project drawn up by the Piacenza architect Lotario Tomba. For various reasons this initiative was unsuccessful; instead, a company made up of five Piacenza patricians obtained, in August 1803, from the General Administrator Moreau de Saint-Méry the consent to build a new theater. Also designed by Tomba, it was erected on an area occupied by the Landi Pietra palace (which was demolished to make way for the new building) at the intersection of current Giordani and Verdi streets near San Antonino. The chosen location was not without issues: on one hand, the new theater would revive the life of the square of the ancient Cathedral, on the other, the dialogue of the new architecture with the imposing splendid Gothic church could not be among the simplest. Another penalizing aspect was the limited area available, which the designer resolved by reducing, perhaps excessively also for the needs of 19th-century stage technology, the stage, but the foyer and accessory spaces were also penalized. The construction of the new theater was carried out in a very short time, about a year or slightly more, and although lacking a facade and with internal decorations not entirely in harmony with the elegance of its structure, it was inaugurated on September 10, 1804, with the serious drama for music Zamori, or The Hero of India, libretto by Luigi Previdali and music – specially composed – by Giovanni Simone Mayer and the ‘heroic ballet’ Emma, or The Judgment of Charlemagne, by Giuseppe Ranzi. The theater features an elliptical plan hall, considered according to Patte’s dictates (Essai sur l’architecture théâtrale, 1782) the best responding to acoustic and visual needs, four tiers of boxes and gallery, while structurally characterized by the presence of large pointed arches, probably a device adopted by Tomba to reduce the spans and the counterthrusts maintaining the same vertical development. In 1826, under the guidance of Alessandro Sanquirico, considerable internal decoration works were undertaken, and a now lost curtain was painted. In 1830, following Lotario Tomba’s designs, partially modified, Sanquirico completed the facade, inspired, also by the express desire of the clients, by La Scala in Milan. In 1857, the architect Paolo Gazzola was commissioned to carry out further significant restoration works, in particular the roof was rebuilt, and the hall above the stalls was enlarged creating a space for scenic painters; around forty new accessory rooms were also built, while others were enlarged. Great attention was also devoted to the decorative apparatus: under the direction of Girolamo Magnani, the hall’s vault was repainted with the collaboration of Paolo Bozzini, the decorations of the atrium entrusted to Gaetano Albertelli were redone, as well as those of stairs, stuccos, and gilding of the proscenium and boxes, giving the environments the aesthetic appearance they still preserve. The old wooden structures such as the roof, stage, and machinery today lost were redone by Giuseppe Mastellari, machinist of the Royal Theater of Parma. In 1938-1939 the partitions of the third and fourth tiers of boxes were demolished to create two floors of galleries. The wooden winches, drums, and grids were demolished in a 1970 restoration during which the wooden roof covering was replaced with a masonry one. In the 1976-1979 restoration, the scenography laboratory was transformed into an auditorium for conferences and concerts, and improvements were made to the service rooms. Of the ancient musical furnishings, only an organ acquired in 1836 from the Serassi brothers of Bergamo remains. Recently the theater was again the subject of an important restoration intervention. In the spring of 2001, on the occasion of the centenary of Giuseppe Verdi’s death, the Hall of the Scenic Designers of the Municipal theater exceptionally hosted two exhibitions. An exhibition of paintings by Pietro Fornari, who, inspired by the master’s works, portrayed known and lesser-known heroes and heroines from Verdi’s repertoire. This was followed by a display of graphic works by Giancarlo Braghieri inspired by Verdi’s music. Permanently on display in the theater café is the ‘Portrait of a Woman with Three Roosters,’ a large painting from 1950 by Luciano Spazzali, an artist from Piacenza.
Information about Municipal Theater
Via Giuseppe Verdi, 41,
29121 Piacenza (Piacenza)
Source: MIBACT
