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22-596: The Teatro Argentina (directly translating to "Theatre Argentina") is an opera house and theatre located in Largo di Torre Argentina , a square in Rome , Italy . One of the oldest theatres in Rome, it was constructed in 1731 and inaugurated on 31 January 1732 with Berenice by Domenico Sarro . It is built over part of the curia section of the Theatre of Pompey . This curia was the location of

44-632: A more popular and intimate aspect (see, for example, Adam de la Halle 's Jeu de Robin et Marion ("Play of Robin and Marion"), in the 13th century). At the beginning of the 17th century, in Italy, singing underwent yet another renewal, with the emergence of Baroque art at the height of the Renaissance . Italy continues to have many working opera houses, such as the Teatro Massimo in Palermo (the biggest in

66-451: A publicly supported system. Early United States opera houses served a variety of functions in towns and cities, hosting community dances, fairs, plays, and vaudeville shows as well as operas and other musical events. In the 2000s, most opera and theatre companies are supported by funds from a combination of government and institutional grants , ticket sales, and private donations. In the 19th-century United States, many theaters were given

88-457: A variety of programmes, some being large-scale productions, although more plays than music or opera are presented today. The inside of the theatre is constructed of wood with six levels of boxes characterizing the design, and has been restored many times. It seats 696 people, including 344 in the stalls and with 40 boxes on five levels seating an additional 352. Plantamura notes that the theatre's acoustics were regarded as being excellent and that

110-592: Is now known that the roof was supported by 90 internal pillars, in nine rows of ten. From a few other passages, and from the scanty remains of such edifices, we may conclude further that it had an orchestra for the chorus and a stage for the musicians (of less depth than the stage of the theatre), behind which were rooms, which were probably used for keeping the dresses and vessels, and ornaments required for religious processions. It required no shifting scenery but its stage's back-wall seems to have been permanently decorated with paintings. For example, Vitruvius writes that, in

132-520: The assassination of Julius Caesar . The theatre was commissioned by the Sforza-Cesarini family and designed by the architect Gerolamo Theodoli , with the auditorium laid out in the traditional horseshoe shape. Duke Francesco Sforza-Cesarini, who ran the Argentina Theatre from 1807 to 1815, was a "theatre fanatic" who continued until his death to run up debts. Rossini 's The Barber of Seville

154-566: The biblical Book of Daniel , deals with Israel's captivity in Babylon . The play was written and performed by students of the Episcopal School of Beauvais , located in northern France. In the 15th century, sung theater of a religious nature found a special place in the mystery plays performed on cathedral squares. As before, they dealt with sacred subjects, but they were not about worship per se. Secular musical theater also existed, but had

176-602: The Acropolis. It was later fully rebuilt by Ariobarzanes II of Cappadocia , using C. and M. Stallius and Menalippus as his architects. The new building was referred to by Pausanias in the 2nd century AD as "the most magnificent of all the structures of the Greeks". He also refers to a "figure of Dionysus worth seeing" in an odeon in Athens, though he does not specify which odeon. [REDACTED]  This article incorporates text from

198-418: The abandonment of ancient theaters, which were transformed into gigantic stone quarries , like many other ancient buildings, both public or private. Music still had its place in worship. It continued to bring audiences together, but its content was completely renewed. The Jeu de Daniel ("Play of Daniel") was a sung play, characteristic of the medieval Renaissance of the 12th century . The subject, taken from

220-794: The architect who designed the La Fenice opera house in Venice, Gianantonio Selva , modeled his design after the Argentina. In the novel The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas , the Teatro Argentina was the setting for an important scene during a performance of Parisina by Gaetano Donizetti . 41°53′44″N 12°28′34″E  /  41.89556°N 12.47611°E  / 41.89556; 12.47611 Opera house While some venues are constructed specifically for operas, other opera houses are part of larger performing arts centers. Indeed,

242-598: The country), the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples and the Teatro alla Scala in Milan . The Teatro San Cassiano in Venice was the world's first public opera house, inaugurated as such in 1637. In the 17th and 18th centuries, opera houses were often financed by rulers, nobles, and wealthy people who used patronage of the arts to endorse their political ambition and social position. There

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264-398: The name "opera house", even ones where opera was seldom if ever performed. Opera was viewed as a more respectable art form than theater ; calling a local theater an "opera house" therefore served to elevate it and overcome objections from those who found the theater morally objectionable. Notes Sources Odeon of Pericles The Odeon of Athens or Odeon of Pericles in Athens

286-546: The relationship of consonance that it will have with one of these vases." The odeon built by Pericles near the Theater of Dionysus in Athens was, according to the Suda , intended for the rehearsal of music that was to be sung in the grand theater or, according to Plutarch , for the jury to audition musicians competing for a prize. Ancient theaters provided the ideal conditions, but it

308-528: The small theatre at Tralleis (which was doubtless an odeon), Apaturius of Alabanda painted the scaena with a composition so fantastic that he was compelled to remove it, and to correct it according to the truth of natural objects. The original Odeon of Athens was burned down during Sulla 's siege of Athens in the First Mithridatic War in 87–86 BC, either by Sulla himself or by his opponent Aristion for fear that Sulla would use its timbers to storm

330-409: The term opera house is often used as a term of prestige for any large performing arts center. Based on Aristoxenus 's musical system, and paying homage to the architects of ancient Greek theater , Vitruvius described, in the 1st century BC, in his treatise De architectura , the ideal acoustics of theaters. He explained the use of brazen vases that Mummius had brought to Rome after having had

352-446: The theater of Corinth demolished, and as they were probably used in the Theater of Pompey . As wooden theaters were naturally sonorous, these vases, placed between the seats on the stands, served as resonators in the stone buildings: "By means of this arrangement, the voice, which will come from the stage as from a center, will extend in circles, will strike in the cavities of the vases, and will be made stronger and clearer, according to

374-594: The theatre premiered works by Luigi Pirandello , Henrik Ibsen , and Maxim Gorky during this time. A series of operas was presented in the winter of 1944–45 in honor of the American and British troops. The venue was used for classical music recordings by the Santa Cecilia orchestra in the 1950s. In 1994, the theatre became the home of the Teatro Stabile company of Rome, currently directed by Mario Martone . It offers

396-506: The usual circular shape for an odeon. It was covered with timber made from captured Persian ships, culminating in a square pyramid-like roof resembling a tent. Pausanias wrote that the 1st century BC rebuild of it was "said to be a copy of Xerxes ' tent", and that might well have applied to the original building. Plutarch writes that the original building had many seats and many pillars. Modern excavation work has revealed its foundations as 62.40 by 68.60 m (204.7 by 225.1 ft), and it

418-626: Was a 4,000 m (43,000 sq ft) odeon , built at the southeastern foot of the Acropolis in Athens , next to the entrance to the Theatre of Dionysus . It was first built in 435 BC by Pericles for the musical contests that formed part of the Panathenaea , for audiences from the theatre to shelter in case of bad weather and for chorus rehearsals. Few remains of it now survive, but it seems to have been "adorned with stone pillars" (according to Vitruvius and Plutarch ) and square instead of

440-416: Was given its premiere here on 20 February 1816, just after Duke Francesco's death and, in the 19th century, the premieres of many notable operas took place in the theatre, including Verdi 's I due Foscari on 3 November 1844 and La battaglia di Legnano on 27 January 1849, and Teresa Seneke ’s Le Due Amiche in 1869. From 1919 to 1944, more musical offerings than dramatic ones were presented, although

462-752: Was no opera house in London when Henry Purcell was composing and the first opera house in Germany, the Oper am Gänsemarkt , was built in Hamburg in 1678, followed by the Oper am Brühl in Leipzig in 1693, and the Opernhaus vorm Salztor in Naumburg in 1701. With the rise of bourgeois and capitalist social forms in the 19th century, European culture moved away from its patronage system to

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484-570: Was not yet time for opera: the aim was to worship the deities, not to venerate the muses . The subject was religious, it was accompanied by singing and instrumental music. Worship was public, and the audience was made up of citizens as well as other categories of the population. Four centuries later, the Church abandoned spectacles as practiced in Antiquity. Histrions , representative of Greco-Roman civilization , gradually disappeared. The Middle Ages saw

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