It descends, through numerous transformations, from the oldest theater of Spoleto, the “Teatro Nobile”; construction work of the Teatro Caio Melisso di Spoleto began in 1657 when the Accademia degli Ottusi managed to obtain a space in an extremely interesting urban location, between the Opera della Cattedrale and the church of Santa Maria della Manna d’Oro.
Finely decorated, the Teatro Caio Melisso di Spoleto contains interesting nineteenth-century paintings created by the Perugian Domenico Bruschi. The particular location, inside piazza del Duomo di Spoleto, makes the visit even more evocative.
In its current appearance, the Teatro Caio Melisso is the work of Giovanni Montiroli, 1877-1880, who corrected the horseshoe curvature of the hall to improve visibility for the audience, and built three tiers of boxes, demolishing the old wooden structures. The Perugian painter Domenico Bruschi decorated the ceiling with Apollo and nine Muses, interspersed with lunettes with floral compositions surmounted by monochrome putti, and the curtain depicting the Apotheosis of Caio Melisso. The theater is dedicated to the Spoletan friend of Maecenas, trusted librarian of Augustus, writer, playwright, grammarian, Caio Melisso.
The Teatro Caio Melisso was restored in 1958, after a long abandonment, on the occasion of the first edition of the Festival dei Due Mondi, with a complete revision of its structural fundamentals. Interest in theatrical activity has always been very alive in Spoleto, which in the seventeenth century gave birth to numerous playwrights including Campello, Castelli, Lauri, Luparini, and Vittori, as well as Giovanni Gherardi, progenitor of one of the most famous genealogies of Harlequins and commedia dell’arte comedians.
In 1817 Gioacchino Rossini participated, as a double bass player, in a performance of Italo in Algiers, just in time to admire the beautiful eighteenth-century decorations that were partly destroyed and partly stolen in 1819 by unknown Florentines. Source: MIBACT
Information on Teatro Caio Melisso
Piazza Duomo,
06049 Spoleto (Perugia) 0743 2181
Email: sandro.frontalini@comune.spoleto.pg.it
Internet: https://www.comunespoleto.gov.it
