Teatro Massimo
باليرمو
Palermo's Teatro Massimo is the largest opera house in Italy and one of the biggest in Europe. Opened in 1897, it rules over piazza Verdi with its grand staircase and colonnaded portico. Your treasure map leads you to a monument dedicated to art and to the civic rebirth of the city.
History
The Teatro Massimo Vittorio Emanuele was designed by the architect Giovan Battista Filippo Basile, who began the works in 1875. After his death, his son Ernesto Basile completed the job. It opened on 16 May 1897 with Giuseppe Verdi's Falstaff. Construction took more than twenty years and meant demolishing churches and convents in the area, a choice that fuelled popular legends about the theatre's so-called "monaca" (the nun). The project was part of the great urban renewal of post-unification Palermo, which wanted a theatre worthy of Europe's capitals.
What to see
The neoclassical façade is preceded by a monumental staircase flanked by two bronze lions carrying allegories of Tragedy and Opera. A great pronaos with Corinthian columns leads into the building, which is crowned by a dome. Inside is the grand horseshoe-shaped auditorium, set over several tiers of boxes and able to hold more than a thousand spectators, and the famous ceiling of movable petals that open to let the air circulate. Also remarkable is the Sala Pompeiana, with its peculiar circular acoustics, where audiences once lingered during the intervals.
Curiosities
The Teatro Massimo is famous worldwide as the setting for the final scenes of Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part III, shot on its staircase. Thanks to its acoustic balance it is considered one of the best-sounding theatres in Europe. After a long closure for restoration lasting about two decades, it reopened in 1997, in time for the centenary of its inauguration.
Visiting
The theatre faces Piazza Giuseppe Verdi, in the heart of Palermo. Daytime guided tours of the monumental rooms are available, alongside a rich season of opera, ballet and concerts. It is a short walk from the Quattro Canti, the Cathedral and the Teatro Politeama, easy to reach on foot through the streets of the historic centre.
