Il Teatro Nuovo di Ferrara was inaugurated for the first time on January 3, 1926, with Umberto Giordano’s comedy La cena delle beffe. The construction of the hall took place between 1920 and 1926, while the facade was completed in 1931. The project is credited to the engineers and architects Sesto and Adamo Boari, who were brothers. In designing the theater hall, the two drew on experiences gained in the construction of buildings outside national borders, for example in Switzerland, Mexico City, and other American locations; for the Teatro Nuovo they created the “Boari acoustic curve,” a successful result of experiments on acoustics conducted in major European theaters, without forgetting the rich theatrical tradition of Ferrara. Righini writes in the “Corriere padano” the day after the inauguration: “Before, I can say I had never seen it, because what I saw once, three or maybe four years earlier, was the skeleton of the building: an impressive skeleton in the large iron ribs that joined around a mighty framework, a kind of industrial building framework. Last night something completely different: a marvelous harmony of light and profiles. I could only remember what was masked by cement, lime, and stuccoes fashioned with the flavor of the best Renaissance.” The theater hall has an elliptical shape, two tiers of open and superimposed galleries with a very sober decoration, consisting on the first tier of a balustrade with small columns and on the second tier of a continuous band decorated with bas-reliefs in late Art Nouveau stucco. Slender columns support the arches of the boxes on the third and last tier, from which ribs of the umbrella-shaped roof with a skylight in the center start. The proscenium arch, supported by slender columns adorned with capitals, features four proscenium boxes. In 2005, the theater was closed as it required indispensable work for compliance with safety regulations, restoration of the original state, and restoration of walls and stalls, as well as reopening of the summer dome. Currently, the theater functions as a multifunctional center for both theatrical and film performances, with a café and a shop on the ground floor, a characteristic gallery with display windows that leads, through the foyer, to the theater hall furnished with characteristic red velvet seats and painted in beige and cream tones; on the first floor, a Liberty-style restaurant has also found a place. The facade is very sober and articulated on two levels, with a portico on the ground floor, it features two large round-arched windows on the second floor separated by pilasters, and is topped by a thin cornice. After completion of the adaptation and restoration works, the theater reopened its doors on September 26, 2009, with the “SoundFe” event, a series of trendy musical meetings. (Lidia Bortolotti)
Information about Teatro nuovo di Ferrara
Piazza Trento Trieste, 52,
44121 Ferrara (Ferrara)
Source: MIBACT
