Description
The Teatro Sociale is Mantua's 19th-century opera house, on Piazza Cavallotti: you can spot it by its portico of six Ionic columns under a triangular pediment. It was designed by Luigi Canonica, the architect who had enlarged La Scala in Milan.
The auditorium has the classic horseshoe shape, with three tiers of boxes and, higher up, the galleries, decorated with stucco by Gerolamo Staffieri. On the facade stand statues of the muses Melpomene and Thalia, tragedy and comedy.
It was built between 1817 and 1822 where seven streets meet, by demolishing about ten houses, and opened on December 26, 1822, with an opera by Mercadante. It hosted Emperor Francis I, Victor Emmanuel II and Garibaldi, and in 1906 its courtyard saw Mantua's first film screening.
It still belongs to the society of box owners, which rents it out to touring companies.
The auditorium has the classic horseshoe shape, with three tiers of boxes and, higher up, the galleries, decorated with stucco by Gerolamo Staffieri. On the facade stand statues of the muses Melpomene and Thalia, tragedy and comedy.
It was built between 1817 and 1822 where seven streets meet, by demolishing about ten houses, and opened on December 26, 1822, with an opera by Mercadante. It hosted Emperor Francis I, Victor Emmanuel II and Garibaldi, and in 1906 its courtyard saw Mantua's first film screening.
It still belongs to the society of box owners, which rents it out to touring companies.