Teatro Argentina
Encyclopedia
The Teatro Argentina is an opera house
Opera house
An opera house is a theatre building used for opera performances that consists of a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and set building...

 and theatre located in the Largo di Torre Argentina
Largo di Torre Argentina
Largo di Torre Argentina is a square in Rome, Italy, that hosts four Republican Roman temples, and the remains of Pompey's Theatre. It is located in the ancient Campus Martius....

, a square in Rome, Italy. It is one of the oldest theatres in Rome, and was inaugurated on January 31, 1732 with Berenice
Berenice
Berenice or Berenike is the Ancient Macedonian form for Attic Greek Φερενίκη , meaning "bearer of victory", from φέρω "to bear" + νίκη "victory". Berenika priestess of Demeter in Lete ca. 350 BC is the oldest epigraphical evidence. The name also has the form Bernice...

by Domenico Sarro
Domenico Sarro
Domenico Natale Sarro, also Sarri was an Italian composer.He studied at the Neapolitan conservatory of S. Onofrio. He composed extensively in the early 18th century. His opera Didone abbandonata, premiered on 1 February 1724 at the Teatro San Bartolomeo in Naples, was the first setting of a major...

.

It was commissioned (built) by the Sforza Cesarini family and designed by the architect Gerolamo Theodoli
Gerolamo Theodoli
Marchese Gerolamo Theodoli was an Italian nobleman and architect, best known for designing the Teatro Argentina in Rome...

 with the auditorium laid out in the traditional horseshoe shape. The inside of the theatre is constructed of wood with six levels of boxes characterizing the design, and has been restored many times.

In the 19th century, the premieres of many notable operas took place in the theatre. They include Gioachino Rossini's The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville, or The Futile Precaution is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais's comedy Le Barbier de Séville , which was originally an opéra comique, or a mixture of spoken play with music...

in 1816, and Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...

's I due Foscari
I due Foscari
I due Foscari is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on a historical play, The Two Foscari by Lord Byron....

in 1844 and La battaglia di Legnano
La battaglia di Legnano
La battaglia di Legnano is an opera in four acts, with music by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian-language libretto by Salvadore Cammarano. It was based on the play La Bataille de Toulouse by Joseph Méry. The opera received its first performance on 27 January 1849, at the Teatro Argentina, Rome...

in 1849.

From 1919 to 1944, more musical offerings than dramatic ones were presented, although the theatre premiered works by Luigi Pirandello
Luigi Pirandello
Luigi Pirandello was an Italian dramatist, novelist, and short story writer awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1934, for his "bold and brilliant renovation of the drama and the stage." Pirandello's works include novels, hundreds of short stories, and about 40 plays, some of which are written...

, Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...

 and Maxim Gorky
Maxim Gorky
Alexei Maximovich Peshkov , primarily known as Maxim Gorky , was a Russian and Soviet author, a founder of the Socialist Realism literary method and a political activist.-Early years:...

 during this time. As well, a series of operas was presented in the winter of 1944-45 in honor of the American and British troops.
The theatre became the home of the Teatro Stabile company of Rome in 1994, currently directed by Mario Martone. It offers a variety of programmes, some being large-scale productions, although more plays than music or opera are presented today.

External links

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