Il Teatro Ducale delle Saline, also commonly 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 as a salt warehouse and customs on the ground floor, located near the church of San Protaso, long disappeared, not far from the “dei Cavalli” square, at the corner of the current via Romagnosi and via Cavour, were suitably adapted. No modification or decoration was made to indicate the external adaptation; it seems that it maintained the appearance of a fortress, massive and warlike, complete with surviving battlements. The interiors are better documented thanks to clear plans preserved at the Passerini Landi Library of Piacenza and elaborated in 1758 by Francesco Zanetti, who was in charge of the theater’s restoration, declared dangerous since 1746. Another plan is kept at the State Archive of Parma, Maps and Drawings collection, 23/35, dated February 21, 1743. The small-sized theater had a “U”-shaped floor plan with an auditorium and three tiers of stacked boxes, the first resting on a series of wooden columns. Each tier was made up of twenty-six boxes, in addition to the ducal one; a last tier, called “dei rondoni,” was intended for the common people. The stage was rather small and lacked 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 an inn adjacent to the stalls and a café on the first tier. Nothing is known beyond the purely architectural structure indications, i.e., for example, whether it had plastic or painted decorations. It was certainly active until 1804, and from an appraisal drawn up by Lotario Tomba three years later, it was still in decent condition.
The origin of the Ducal Theater of Palazzo Gotico, also more generally called Piazza Theater, would date back to May 1644 when, on the occasion of celebrations for the peace between Duke Odoardo and Pope Urban VIII, a particular event was the staging in the Hall of the Town Hall, still called the “Gothic,” of the tragicomedy *La finta pazza* by Giulio Strozzi, set to music by Francesco Sacrati, performed by the Febiarmonici Academics. Very likely, this was the first staging of a musical drama in Piacenza; and the initiative’s success prompted the idea of building a proper theater in this palace’s hall. The idea materialized in 1646 under the direction of Piacenza architect Cristoforo Rangoni, known as Ficcarelli, who set up this theatrical hall. With its structure of four tiers of wooden boxes painted to mimic marble, decorated with figures and stuccoes in gold and colors, and with a massive wooden-paneled curtain on which the city of Piacenza appeared painted, pale from the lights and rich in gold, a stage with machinery able to satisfy the complicated seventeenth-century stagings, it qualified as a theater intended to perform a celebratory and elite function excluding paying public. This fact would be confirmed, based on collected documentation, also by the sporadic activity that took place there, consisting solely of important productions of musical dramas that ceased around 1728. Among the most spectacular theatrical events to remember is the staging of *Coriolano* by Cristoforo Ivanovich in May 1669 during public celebrations ordered by Ranuccio II to honor distinguished guests. The grand show involved considerable and appropriate theater adaptation work since January of the same year under the direction of Venetian theatrical engineer Gasparo Mauro.
The so-called “Cittadella” Theater would be, in chronological order, the third ducal theater in Piacenza. Most likely it was built in the second half of the seventeenth century in the building adjacent to the unfinished Rocchetta Viscontea, connected to the neighboring Palazzo Farnese by a footbridge. It was also practically contiguous to more than three hundred wooden shops built by Ranuccio II for trading goods during fairs of exchange and merchandise. Also for this theater, the essential characteristics and space distribution are known thanks to plans drawn by Zanetti in 1758 (another watercolor pen plan dated eighteenth century is preserved 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 customary U-shaped plan extended by a smooth full arch curve, five tiers of boxes, the last usually called “dei rondoni” corresponding to today’s gallery (a total of ninety-six boxes distributed over the first four tiers), and included ancillary spaces for the public such as a salon and café. The large stage was equipped with necessary services, rooms for actors, tailoring workshops, 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 scenographic work of the Galli Bibiena. Performances were usually held in April and September, generally coinciding with important fairs of merchandise and exchange.
Among the most notable musical events of this theater is the representation of *Scipione in Cartagine nuova* by Carlo Innocenzo Frugoni, music by Geminiano Gicomelli, featuring among the singers the famous Carlo Broschi, called Farinello, as the 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. For the occasion, the theater was also properly 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 circles of seats / Where the noble circle ends / You see a large curtain hanging / And on it, marvels are understood: / There is a horse with wings at the back / Nymphs who have lodging / On the clouds there are things / Remarkably funny.”
By the late eighteenth century, the Teatro delle Saline was already dilapidated though still in use, while the Cittadella theater remained the most important and aristocratic venue for public performances. The city was left without one on Christmas Eve 1798 when a violent fire completely destroyed the latter theater. Initially, a certain Pietro La Boubé, a French citizen enriched in the Piacenza area through shrewd speculation, requested government permission to build a new theater (which was to be located in the same block where the Municipal Theater later rose), attaching a project drawn up by Piacenza architect Lotario Tomba. For multiple reasons, this initiative was unsuccessful; instead, a society composed of five Piacenza patricians obtained, in August 1803, from General Administrator Moreau de Saint-Méry the consent to erect a new theater. Also designed by Tomba, it was built on an area occupied by the Landi Pietra palace (which was demolished to make way for the new building) at the intersection of current via Giordani and via Verdi near San Antonino. The chosen location was not without problems. On one hand, the new theater would bring the ancient Cathedral square back to social life; on the other, the dialogue of the new architecture with the imposing splendid Gothic church could not be simpler. Another penalizing aspect was the narrowness of the available area, which the designer solved by reducing, perhaps excessively also for the needs of nineteenth-century stagecraft, the stage; but the foyer and ancillary spaces were also penalized.
The construction of the new theater was carried out in a very short time, about a year or a little more, and although lacking a facade and with interior ornaments not entirely in harmony with the elegance of its structure, it was inaugurated on September 10, 1804, with the serious musical drama *Zamori, ossia L’eroe dell’India*, libretto by Luigi Previdali and music – specially composed – by Giovanni Simone Mayer, and with the “heroic dance” *Emma, ossia Il giudizio di Carlo Magno* by Giuseppe Ranzi. The theater has an elliptical plan hall, considered according to Patte’s dictates (*Essai sur l’architecture théâtrale*, 1782) the best responding to acoustic and visual requirements, four tiers of boxes and gallery, while structurally characterized by the presence of large pointed arches, probably an expedient adopted by Tomba to reduce spans and counterthrusts with the same vertical development. In 1826, under Alessandro Sanquirico’s guidance, significant internal decoration work began, and a curtain, now lost, was painted. In 1830, following Lotario Tomba’s partly modified designs, Sanquirico completed the facade, inspired, also by the explicit desire of the clients, by La Scala in Milan. In 1857, architect Paolo Gazzola was commissioned to carry out further extensive restoration works, particularly the roof was rebuilt, and the hall above the stalls was enlarged to create a space for painters and set designers; about forty accessory rooms were also newly built, and others were expanded. Great attention was also paid to the decorative apparatus: under Girolamo Magnani’s direction, the hall’s vault was repainted with Paolo Bozzini’s collaboration; decorations of the lobby entrusted to Gaetano Albertelli, the stairs, as well as stuccoes and gilding of the proscenium and boxes were restored, giving the rooms the aesthetic aspect it still retains. The old wooden structures such as the roof, stage, and stage machinery, today lost, were redone by Giuseppe Mastellari, stage technician of the Parma Royal Theater. In 1938–1939, the partitions of the third and fourth tiers of boxes were removed to create two gallery floors. The winches, drums, and wooden grids were removed in restoration work in 1970 during which the wooden roof was replaced with a masonry one. In the 1976–1979 restoration, the set design workshop was transformed into an auditorium for conferences and concerts, and improvements were made to service rooms. Of the ancient musical furnishings, only an organ remains, purchased in 1836 from the Serassi brothers from Bergamo. Recently, the theater has again undergone significant restoration work.
In spring 2001, on the occasion of the centenary of Giuseppe Verdi’s death, the Scenographers’ Hall of the Municipal Theater exceptionally hosted two exhibitions. One was a painting exhibition by Pietro Fornari who, inspired by the master’s works, portrayed well-known and lesser-known heroes and heroines from the Verdi repertoire. This was followed by a display of graphic works by Giancarlo Braghieri inspired by Verdi’s music. Permanently exhibited in the theater café is the *Portrait of a Woman with Three Roosters*, a large 1950 painting by Luciano Spazzali, an artist from Piacenza.
(Lidia Bortolotti)
Information about the Municipal Theater
Via Giuseppe Verdi, 41,
29121 Piacenza (Piacenza)
Source: MIBACT
