Description
The Teatro Civico is the most important theater in La Spezia, in the old town, on Piazza Mentana. Outside it has an Art Deco facade with three arches; inside, a hall where, with the dome open, you can watch the stars.
The opening dome is its special feature. It is decorated with a band of zodiac symbols, the work of the sculptor Augusto Magli, and during evening shows it lets you see the real sky, just like the painted constellations.
From the entrance a wide staircase leads to the foyer, with pillars of cipollino marble. In the atrium are the bronze busts of the conductor Domenico Cortopassi and the baritone Emilio Bione, and three Art Deco plasters by Magli: Bacchus, Tobacco and Venus.
The auditorium is sober, in soft colors and smooth surfaces, with no heavy stucco. Two white marble dancers welcome you at the entrance to the stalls, while little ladies on horseback run along the box parapets. The four tiers of boxes of the Italian-style theater remain.
It was the first theater built for the purpose in the city. The town council approved it unanimously in 1839, when La Spezia was growing and wanted the look of a real city. Finding the funds took fourteen months between the resolution and the first stone, laid in July 1840.
The design was by the Genoese architect Ippolito Cremona, in a rigorous neoclassical style, with a loggia facade topped by a pediment and three marble statues. The curtain was painted by Francesco Gonin, illustrator of The Betrothed.
Opening night was July 18, 1846. The program included Verdi's Ernani, Donizetti's Gemma di Vergy and an opera buffa with a fittingly determined title, Chi la dura la vince! (He who endures wins!). The council invited shopkeepers to keep prices moderate, to attract more outsiders.
For decades the theater was much more than a theater. The city council met in the foyer, on the first floor there were the city club and the casino, and in 1873 the ground floor housed the first core of the Civic Museum, born from a donation of shells and crustaceans.
Its present look dates from 1932-33, when the architect Franco Oliva remade everything in Art Deco style. He wanted something halfway between an eighteenth-century theater and a modern movie house, and indeed after the war the hall long served only as a cinema.
Closed in 1987, it was restored from 1989 to 1995 and returned to being a theater. It hosts the La Spezia International Jazz Festival.
The opening dome is its special feature. It is decorated with a band of zodiac symbols, the work of the sculptor Augusto Magli, and during evening shows it lets you see the real sky, just like the painted constellations.
From the entrance a wide staircase leads to the foyer, with pillars of cipollino marble. In the atrium are the bronze busts of the conductor Domenico Cortopassi and the baritone Emilio Bione, and three Art Deco plasters by Magli: Bacchus, Tobacco and Venus.
The auditorium is sober, in soft colors and smooth surfaces, with no heavy stucco. Two white marble dancers welcome you at the entrance to the stalls, while little ladies on horseback run along the box parapets. The four tiers of boxes of the Italian-style theater remain.
It was the first theater built for the purpose in the city. The town council approved it unanimously in 1839, when La Spezia was growing and wanted the look of a real city. Finding the funds took fourteen months between the resolution and the first stone, laid in July 1840.
The design was by the Genoese architect Ippolito Cremona, in a rigorous neoclassical style, with a loggia facade topped by a pediment and three marble statues. The curtain was painted by Francesco Gonin, illustrator of The Betrothed.
Opening night was July 18, 1846. The program included Verdi's Ernani, Donizetti's Gemma di Vergy and an opera buffa with a fittingly determined title, Chi la dura la vince! (He who endures wins!). The council invited shopkeepers to keep prices moderate, to attract more outsiders.
For decades the theater was much more than a theater. The city council met in the foyer, on the first floor there were the city club and the casino, and in 1873 the ground floor housed the first core of the Civic Museum, born from a donation of shells and crustaceans.
Its present look dates from 1932-33, when the architect Franco Oliva remade everything in Art Deco style. He wanted something halfway between an eighteenth-century theater and a modern movie house, and indeed after the war the hall long served only as a cinema.
Closed in 1987, it was restored from 1989 to 1995 and returned to being a theater. It hosts the La Spezia International Jazz Festival.