Teatro Alfieri
The Teatro Alfieri is a theatre at Piazza Solferino 4, in Turin, opened in 1855; it hosts drama, classics, operetta and musicals, and after its last renovation in 2002 it has around 1,500 seats.[1][2]
History
The design is attributed to Barnaba Panizza, or, according to the theatre, to Lorenzo Panizza together with his son Barnaba, who lived in the house he had designed on the corner with Via Cernaia; it originally had around two thousand seats.[3][2] The theatre burned down several times: first on 5 January 1858, then in 1863, in 1868 and in 1927.[2][3] In 1877 Panizza redesigned the hall, in 1901 Pietro Fenoglio enlarged the entrance, and in 1927 Eugenio Mollino refurbished the hall.[3] The 1942 bombings hit it hard, and in 1949 it was almost entirely rebuilt.[3][2]
Performances
It hosted the world premieres of works such as Graffigna's «La Mandragola» (1888) and Costa's «Capitan Fracassa» (1909), and in 1963 it was a stop on the Cantagiro.[1] From the 1950s, Giuseppe Erba's programming brought great jazz acts to the Alfieri, from Louis Armstrong to Duke Ellington and Miles Davis.[2] The 2001-2002 renovation added two cinema screens alongside the theatre hall.[4]
Today
Since July 2022, the Alfieri and the nearby Teatro Gioiello have been managed by FdF Entertainment, which produced «Cabaret» there, directed by Arturo Brachetti, the first musical produced entirely in Turin.[2][5]
Related articles: Erminio Macario, Piazza Solferino, Pietro Fenoglio