Opera Museum

In 1628, when the “Gran Teatro” (now known as the Farnese) built by Duke Ranuccio I, was inaugurated, the type of entertainment that we define as opera in music had been a frequent event for over thirty years in many of the important Italian noble courts. 

The place where the court opera was held was originally undefined. Sometimes it was a chance occurrence, other times it was held in a real theater, often built for a specific occasion. This was the case of the Gran Teatro – now known as the Farnese Theater – on which construction was undertaken in 1618 by Duke Ranuccio I in expectation of a visit by Cosimo II de’ Medici, and which was only completed ten years later for the wedding of Odoardo Farnese with Margherita de’ Medici.

The indeterminacy of the place where opera should be held ceased when the new social classes that arose at the end of the fourth decade of the 17th century, in the Venetian Republic appropriate that form of entertainment which had started life, at the beginning of the century, in the noble environment. The idea of a theater as the only place suitable for holding musical events began to take shape with the simultaneous idea of a virtually public theater, open to a less select audience for largely economic purposes. Parma too inaugurated a new virtually public theater, at the end of 1687, called the Teatro Ducale, and it remained in activity until early in 1829. At the request of Duke Ranuccio II it was designed by the court architect, Stefano Lolli. It was a typical theater in the Italian style: a horseshoe with a long, narrow pit, 112 stalls arranged on four levels with the duke’s boxes at the center, and on the fifth level the gallery.

The theatrical experiences of the past centuries were based on a concept of entertainment based on a combination of types that we now find it difficult to imagine.

The same building was used for various types of entertainment: from dramatic to musical theater, from instrumental music to dance, poetry readings and the widest possible variety of “attractions” (tightrope walkers and gymnastics, exhibitions of trained animals, “scientific” demonstrations, magic shows, “freak” shows).

Theaters that could not afford the extra sets for the ballet might offer, between the acts of the opera or play, vocal or instrumental exhibitions, dance recitals, poetry readings and other events.

The opening occurred in a period of transition between two absolute monarchs of music: Rossini, who dominated European opera unchallenged in the second and third decades of the century, and Verdi, who monopolized the theatrical scene in the decades that followed. The theater – renamed “Royal” in 1849 and then “Regio” – witnessed all these and other changes: from its opening to the experiences that came from abroad (from France first, then from Germany) to the extreme development in the realistic sense of Italian opera (Mascagni, Leoncavallo, Puccini among others), to the demise of the opera as a vital genre and its transformation into a cultural legacy.

When Verdi started his career as a composer of operas, at the end of the Thirties, Bellini had been dead for several years; Donizetti was still in activity, but he had entered the final stage of his career, when he emigrated to France; Rossini had not been composing for the theater for about ten years by then, and many of his operas had disappeared from the theater programs, after monopolizing them for almost twenty years. In spite of this, Rossini was still the obligatory term of comparison for young composers starting out; even young Verdi patterned his first triumph, Nabucodonosor (later Nabucco), on Rossini’s Mosè. It was with Nabucco that Verdi made his successful debut in Parma in April 1843. From then on his success was marked by several clear stages: his early works were received with varying degrees of success, then around the middle of the century, he dominated the scene, was positively glorified in his late maturity, then partially forgotten in the early decades of the 20th century.

The Reinach politeama theater owes its name to the German banker who donated a sum of money to the city of Parma in 1866 for charity.  It was a very large structure, with a capacity of about 1500 spectators. Donated to the City of Parma, the theater was inaugurated in 1871 with the presentation of a comedy by Parmenio Bettoli and a recital of music by Giusto Dacci, director of the Institute of Music (later Conservatory). The history of the theater took a turn in 1913, when it was purchased and remodeled by the orchestra conductor Cleofonte Campanini who planned to make it a “Music Center for National Competitions” for young composers and singers at the beginning of their careers. The war, first, then the death of Campanini at the peak of his international fame, put an end to these plans. The theater, renamed the “Paganini”, resumed its regular activity until 1944, when it was destroyed by bombing in an air raid.