I box holders of the Old Theatre formed a society in 1848 to raise the sum that the central government had repeatedly refused to grant, necessary for the construction of a new theatre. The Society, which by deed of 1856 had undertaken to bear the costs, entrusted Claudio Rossi, professor at the drawing school, an exponent together with Cesare Costa of the Modenese neoclassical current. Rossi presented two designs. The commission chose the more traditional project “in line with the temple-theatre usual in the early nineteenth century (think of the Regio di Parma)” (Bondoni in Teatri, 1982, p. 203). The more experimental eclectic design of neo-Renaissance taste was rejected. For the construction of the new building, they did not want to modify the old site, so the free area located between the Pio castle, where the Old Theatre stood, and Palazzo Sacchetti, the town hall, was preferred. In March 1857, work began and ended four years later with the inauguration on August 11, 1861. A pronaos jutting out on stone steps, resting on four Doric columns and crowned by a large tympanum, strongly characterizes the facade of the new theatre. Above it, corresponding to the cavea, more recessed, rises a ‘sub-pediment’ with a semicircular window decorated in relief by the allegorical figure of Music and Dramatic Art. In 1860, when construction costs became unsustainable, the Society transferred the rights to the Municipal Administration, which acquired ownership. Although the commitment of the Box Holders Society was also remembered on the facade where it says “Societas erexit MDCCCLVIII.” A garden at the back of the theatre and a series of busts with important city figures delimit the theatrical space and enhance its role in the urban space. From the internal hall decorated with golden stuccoes, elliptical in shape, one can access the ticket office, cloakroom and bar services and the performance hall. The stalls have a horseshoe shape with 22 boxes on the first tier, 22 on the second and 24 on the third (once equipped with backstage), a royal box and a gallery. The stalls, with a recently renovated wooden floor, accommodate about 500 people. The Society of Box Holders was also remembered in the decorations by Ferdinando Manzini, who portrayed the features of the members in the medallions of the box parapets. Of Giuseppe Ugolini, who decorated the ceiling of the stalls with figures of Music, Poetry, Prose and Dance, a decorative project with nine Muses similar to the decoration he executed for the second Hall of the Municipal Theatre in Reggio is also preserved. Also the curtain decorated by Ugolini with Orpheus urging Nature. Unfortunately, the supporting structure of the stage, of considerable size, equipped with an arch stage and clock, has been redone in cement. There are numerous service rooms, including a room for scenographers and seventeen dressing rooms for actors. Albano Lugli decorated the overdoors of the foyer located above the entrance hall, with copies taken from the female figures of Correggio. In an adjoining small room with a fireplace, the ‘Society of the Casino’ met, which organized exhibitions, lectures, cultural meetings. A first restoration was carried out in 1939 and in 1978-1981 the Municipality oversaw an important restructuring and consolidation project. (Caterina Spada)
Information about Carpi Municipal Theatre
Piazza dei Martiri,
41012 Carpi (Modena)
Source: MIBACT
