I palchettisti del Teatro Vecchio constituted a society in 1848 to be able to raise the sum, which the central government had repeatedly refused to grant, necessary for the construction of a new theater. The Society, which with a deed of 1856 had committed to bearing the burden of the expenses, commissioned Claudio Rossi, professor of the drawing school, a representative with Cesare Costa of the Modenese neoclassical current. Rossi presented two projects. The commission chose the more traditional project “in line with the theater-temple usual in the early nineteenth century (consider the Regio of Parma)” (Bondoni in Teatri, 1982, p. 203). The more experimental eclectic design of neo-Renaissance taste was discarded. For the construction of the new building, the old site was not to be modified, so the free area located between the Pio castle where the Old Theater stood and Palazzo Sacchetti, the seat of the Municipality, was preferred. In March 1857, work began and ended four years later with the inauguration on August 11, 1861. A portico projecting on stone steps, resting on four Doric columns and topped by a large pediment, strongly characterizes the facade of the new theater. Above it, corresponding to the cavea, set back, rises a ‘sub-pediment’ with a semicircular window decorated in relief with the allegorical figure of Music and Dramatic Art. In 1860, when the costs of realization became unsustainable, the Society ceded the rights to the Municipal Administration which acquired ownership. even though the commitment of the Palchettisti Society was equally remembered on the facade where it reads “Societas erexit MDCCCLVIII.” A garden behind the theater and a series of busts with important city figures delimit the theater space and enhance its role in the urban space. From the inner hall decorated with golden stuccoes, elliptical in shape, you access the ticket office services, cloakroom and bar, and the performance hall. The layout of the stalls is horseshoe-shaped with 22 boxes on the first floor, 22 on the second, and 24 on the third (once equipped with backstage), a royal box, and a gallery. The stalls, with a recently renewed wooden floor, contain about 500 people. The Palchettisti society 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 Atrium of the Municipal 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 remade in concrete. There are numerous service rooms including a room for set designers 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 adjacent small room with a fireplace, the ‘Society of the Casino’ met which organized exhibitions, conferences, cultural meetings. A first restoration was carried out in 1939 and in 1978-1981 the Municipality took care of an important restructuring and consolidation project. (Caterina Spada)
Information about the Carpi Municipal Theater
Piazza dei Martiri,
41012 Carpi (Modena)
Source: MIBACT
