Teatro di San Carlo
The Teatro di San Carlo can be found next to Piazza del Plebiscito. An Italian lyric temple, with a date of birth that precedes the Scala in Milan by 41 years and the Fenice in Venice by 55. The Teatro di San Carlo was built in 1737, by the will of King Charles III of Bourbon who strongly intended to give the city a new theater that would represent and glorify his royal power.
The project was entrusted to the architect Giovanni Antonio Medrano, a Spanish Colonel Brigadier based in Naples, and to Angelo Carasale, former director of the San Bartolomeo. Medrano’s design included a hall 28.6 meters long and 22.5 meters wide, with 184 boxes, including those in the proscenium, arranged in six orders, plus a royal box capable of accommodating ten people.
The inauguration, which took place on the evening of November 4, the sovereign’s name day, featured Pietro Metastasio’s Achille in Sciro, with music by Domenico Sarro and “two intermezzo dances” created by Francesco Aquilante; the scenes are by Pietro Righini.
As was the custom of the time, Achille was interpreted by a woman, Vittoria Tesi, known as “la Moretta”, alongside the first soprano woman Anna Peruzzi, known as “the Parrucchierina” and the tenor Angelo Amorevoli.
The restructuring of the theater bears the signature of the architect and scenographer Antonio Niccolini (1772-1850). The leader of Neoclassicism in Naples intervenes, on several occasions, on the building which gradually acquires its present appearance.
The first phase of the metamorphosis concerns the façade, transfigured by elements of classicist grammar and Hellenizing decorations, with the consequent addition of the foyer and the recreation and refreshment areas. The works, which began as early as December 1809, ended two years later.
According to the reviews, the tour of the theatre is fun and the guides brilliant, some of them actors themselves, who captivate their audience as they tell the history of the theatre and then allow the visitor to wander around the theatre and explore its hidden corners and the once prohibited for the common folk Royal box. The English tour will take about an hour of your time and it is worth it.
If you’re a crazy fan like us of the 1999 Hollywood film “The Talented Mr. Ripley” then you’ll be pleased to know that the opulent theatre was used as the setting in the scene where Tom (Matt Damon), impersonating Dickie (Jude Law) and Kate Blanchet is attending the opera in Rome (yeap it was shot in Naples and Teatro San Carlo). MORE
