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Farnese Theater

On the first floor of the Palazzo della Pilotta , lies the largest baroque theater existing inside a building, the beautiful Teatro Farnese, built in 1618 by the architect Giovanni Battista Aleotti (1546-1636), known as ‘Argenta’. It was built for the Duke Ranuccio I Farnese, who wanted to welcome Cosimo de’ Medici with great celebrations, hoping to consolidate the marriage alliance between Odoardo Farnese and Margherita de’ Medici, which was finally celebrated in 1628.

Famous before it even opened, the new theater mesmerized 17th century aristocratic Europe on opening night with a six-hour performance of ‘Mercury and Mars’ with the music of Monteverdi. The high note was a naval battle that had the stalls completely flooded for a clash that included near life-sized battleships. It was used only nine times in the next 104 years. The cost and complexity of the scenery and staging limited the theater’s use to mostly celebrations of royal marriages. After a performance in 1732, the theater was left to decay until 1913, when it was reopened for the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of Verdi’s birth. A bomb destroyed it during WWII and restoration work was completed in 1962, but not to the original colors and the original trompe l’oeuil effect was lost.

The Teatro Farnese was the first theater designed for the use of movable scenery and the first to use the proscenium arch, a curved or rectangular frame enclosing the stage and now found in many modern theaters. The wooden structure was originally painted to mimic more precious materials like marble and bronze, and it was decorated with plaster statues, imitating white marble. The theater still retains many portions of the original frescoes, painted by various masters, including Malosso and Lionello Spada.