page_title: Teatro Regio (Parma)
section_title: Construction of the Teatro Ducale
hierarchical_section_title: Teatro Regio (Parma) / Construction of the Teatro Ducale
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Teatro Regio This is a photo of a monument which is part of cultural heritage of Italy. This monument participates in the contest Wiki Loves Monuments Italia 2014. See authorisations. (wiki-ID: 034027629)
context_page_description: Teatro Regio di Parma, originally constructed as the Nuovo Teatro Ducale, is an opera house and opera company in Parma, Italy.
  Replacing an obsolete house, the new Ducale achieved prominence in the years after 1829, and especially so after the composer Giuseppe Verdi, who was born near Busseto, some thirty kilometres away, had achieved fame. Also well known in Parma was the conductor Arturo Toscanini, born there in 1867.
  As has been noted by Lee Marshall, "while not as well known as La Scala in Milan or La Fenice in Venice, the city’s Teatro Regio....is considered by opera buffs to be one of the true homes of the great Italian tradition, and the well-informed audience is famous for giving voice to its approval or disapproval – not just from the gallery."
  The 1,400-seat auditorium, with four tiers of boxes topped by a gallery, was inaugurated on 16 May 1829 when it presented the premiere of Vincenzo Bellini's Zaira, a production which was staged another seven times, although it did not prove to be popular with the Parma audiences. Initially Rossini had been invited to compose a work for the inauguration of the house, but he was too busy and so the task fell to Bellini.
context_section_description: There had been a Ducal Theatre in Parma since the 17th century, the principal one being the Teatro Farnese constructed in 1618, but it was used only nine times, the last one occurring in October 1732, after which it suffered from years from neglect and further damage by American bombing in World War II. It was rebuilt in 1966.
  However, the "Nuovo" replaced another existing "small and narrow" Ducal Theatre dating from 1688, which had been located in the Palazzo di Riserva. The 1,200-seat theatre was becoming obsolete due to a variety of factors, including the need to appeal to an increasing middle class desire to experience opera, but also allow for "separate and well articulated private and public spaces". After a performance of Rossini's Zelmira in 1828, it was closed and then demolished.
  The newly built "Nuovo Ducale" was located on the site of the former Monastery of St. Alexander and it was located next to the Ducal Palace. Construction began in 1821 during the reign of Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma who, as Napoleon I's divorced second wife, preferred divorce rather than exile. She settled in Parma, ruling from 1816 to 1847, and under her patronage and financial support, secured the services of the architect Nicola Bettoli. Marie Louise oversaw the construction, assuring that the interior decoration reflected "the sobriety of neoclassicism and the colours white and light blue".
  In 1849, restoration was called for and then, four years later under the Bourbon Duke Carlo III, more opulent decoration took place.  This included the replacement of the neoclassical elements with the more sensual aspects of the mid-19th century; as Martini notes, "this rendered the theatre more splendid with extensive use of red velvet and golden ornamentation. In addition, gas lighting in the house was installed. By 1907, the stage lighting was electrified, and that of the rest of house took place during the centennial of Verdi's birth in 1913.
  The architecture of the "Nuovo"
  The façade of the theatre was built in the neoclassical style, which has remained unchanged over the years. With a colonnade of ten Ionic granitic columns at the base, which created an arcade, this supports five imperial-style windows above, topped by a tympana and decorative elements enrich the highest part of the facade with one central semi-circular window, besides bas-reliefs by Tommaso Bandini of two muses at one lyra in the central and lateral position.
  The foyer is, as Martini describes it, a "large square upheld by four pairs of imposing mottled marble Ionic columns on an attic base.....  The entire room is based on the square and on symmetry".  It is decorated with a marble floor.
  After the 1853 restoration, which overall has been described as neo-Baroque ("[It radiat[es]  gold, ivory, and maroon" colours), the ceiling of the auditorium was decorated by Giovan Battista Borghesi with frescoes of the most famous playwrights. This remains today. The chandelier, which was built in Paris and taken to Parma in 1854 when the theatre was adapted for gas, is 4.5 metres in height and weighs 1100 kg.
  Renaming the theatre
  After the reign of Duchess Marie Louise, the theatre was renamed and between 1849 and 1860, it was known as the "Teatro Reale". With the unification of Italy in 1861, the house took its present name, the Teatro Regio.
caption: The auditorium of the Teatro Regio
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