Teatro Carignano

The Teatro Carignano is the theatre on Piazza Carignano, at via Piazza Carignano 6, and is the only theatre in Turin that still preserves its eighteenth-century structure; since 1977 it has been the main venue of the Teatro Stabile di Torino.^[1]

Origins

Sources differ on its beginnings. According to MuseoTorino, the theatre was built around 1711 as the private comedy theatre of the princes of Carignano, following an earlier wooden structure from the late seventeenth century attributed to Guarino Guarini.^[1] According to the Stabile, the building was originally a real tennis court, the "Trincotto Rosso", which passed in 1727 to the Società dei Cavalieri and was converted into a theatre in 1740 with 56 boxes.^[2]

Alfieri's theatre

In 1752, at the behest of Prince Luigi Vittorio di Carignano, Benedetto Alfieri rebuilt it in masonry from the foundations up, on a plan modelled after a reduced version of the Teatro Regio, with 84 boxes and three tiers of benches in the stalls; it opened at Easter 1753 with Carlo Goldoni's «La calamita de' cuori».^[1]^[2] The front building is attributed to Giovanni Battista Borra, and the decorations are by Gaetano Perego and Mattia Franceschini.^[1]

After the fire of 16 February 1786, the theatre was rebuilt in 1787 to a design by Giovanni Battista Feroggio, with four tiers of boxes, a portico and thirteen windows on the main floor.^[2]^[1] The ceiling of the stalls, depicting the "Triumph of Bacchus", is by Francesco Gonin, dating from 1845.^[1] In 1870 the theatre passed to the City: the architect Carrera converted the fourth tier of boxes into a gallery and created a beer hall in the basement, which became a cinema in 1903.^[2] Luigi Pirandello's «Il piacere dell'onestà» had its debut at the Carignano.^[2]

The Stabile

The theatre was damaged by the bombings of 8 November 1942 and of 13 July and 8 August 1943.^[1] The Stabile, founded in 1955 as the "Piccolo teatro" by the City, brought its major productions here from 1961 under the direction of Gianfranco De Bosio, starting with Brecht's «La resistibile ascesa di Arturo Ui»; on 24 March 1964 Sartre's «Le mani sporche», directed by De Bosio, had its debut there.^[3] In 1977 the City entrusted the Carignano to the Stabile as its permanent home.^[1]^[2]

Between spring 2007 and 2009, a restoration recovered the original entrances and the old underground beer hall commissioned by Carlo Alberto.^[1]^[2] The Stabile's seventieth season opened at the Carignano on 6 October 2025 with «Amleto», directed by Leonardo Lidi, and the 2026-2027 season opened on 5 October 2026 with Goldoni's «Una delle ultime sere di carnovale», directed by Valerio Binasco.^[4]^[5]

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