Teatro Bonci (1843) by Vincenzo GhinelliComune di Cesena
The Municipal Theatre, one of the hallmarks of the city, stands out stately and elegant on Piazza Guidazzi, in the historical heart of Cesena.
It represents not only a place of entertainment, but also a centre of social life, as well as the core of animated cultural and artistic production.
It is a typical civil theatre of the Italian nineteenth century with extraordinary acoustics, which, still today, represents a model for scholars of this theatrical field.
Planimetry by UnknownComune di Cesena
Built over the ruins of the previous “Teatro Spada”, done on a project by the architect Vincenzo Ghinelli – to whom the task was entrusted by the City Council in the session of November 5, 1841 and for whom this building is considered to be the most brilliant work – it was later dedicated to the greatest theatrical artist the city has given birth, Alessandro Bonci – a voice of first quality at worldwide level. Today the theatre presents to a large audience – not only to the citizens – a vast program full of classical and contemporary events, in every sector of theatrical performance.
Let’s now immerse ourselves in the history and the body of this Cesena’s jewel.
Teatro Bonci (1843) by Vincenzo GhinelliComune di Cesena
After three years of works, the Theatre was inaugurated on 15 August 1846, with a ceremony of intense participation. The Gonfalonier, Saladino Saladini, handed over the building to the city as a symbol of civil coexistence and a place where the love for music and lyric could resound, bringing together all the people.
The first show consisted in a Gaetano Donizzetti’s edition of the Maria di Rohan and, to follow, the ballet Beatrice di Gand with a great performer of the time, Fanny Elssler.
In the following decades until today, the Theatre has hosted lyric and dramatic performances, as well as meetings, conferences, conventions and events of great importance.
The Façade
In perfect neoclassical style, marked by great balance of decorations and spatial organization, the main facade dominates the small square outside.
Old print by UnknownComune di Cesena
Teatro Bonci (1843) by Vincenzo GhinelliComune di Cesena
The facades are embellished with terracotta bas-reliefs, a splendid work by Gaetano Bernasconi. On the front, we see six bas-reliefs representing the Muses who inspired the theatre and, between them, their guide Apollo.
Teatro Bonci (1843) by Vincenzo GhinelliComune di Cesena
The whole structure is surmounted by a triangular tympanum with Cesena’s emblem, flanked by personifications of two local rivers, the Savio and the Rubicone, while on the two lateral facades four other bas-reliefs represent Greek-Roman divinities, including Bacchus.
The entrance and the marble slabs
We shall now proceed to the interior of the theatre. At the entrance, dominated by an original Murano chandelier, the atrium directs the public to the box office, the small and welcoming Morellini Room and the Theater’s Foyer – a place that has always had the function of welcoming the audience, before, after or during the performances, so they can entertain themselves in various ways.
Marble Slab (1950) by Mario MorigiComune di Cesena
Carrying on, on the lateral walls of the short corridor, between the two big glass doors, two marble slabs stand out: the first, created by Mario Morigi and dating back to 1950, represents Alessandro Bonci, world famous tenor of Cesena to whom the Theater was headed in 1927, when he was still alive. Since then, the building is for everyone “the Bonci”.
Marble Slab by UnknownComune di Cesena
The second slab is instead a work of Ilario Fioravanti, who realized it in 2009: it is a tribute to the architect Vincenzo Ghinelli, who, as previously mentioned, designed and directed the works of the new building that took the place of a previous Theatre – formerly municipal but housed within a stately building.
The Foyer
After the main entrance we meet a second atrium – the Foyer, in fact – which welcomes the audience with a shining embrace. Under the bright Murano chandelier, the Venetian floor draws the emblem of the city; the walls mark the eyes of visitor with memories.
marble slab by UnknownComune di Cesena
The two columns at the bottom are dominated by a couple of marble slabs, that are dedicated to those who, more than others, have excited opera lovers.
Marble Slab by UnknownComune di Cesena
They are Giuseppe Verdi e Richard Wagner, born in the same year, 1813, and immortalized in austere and contrasting poses.
The memory of Bonci and Pavarotti
Eight more small marble slabs are found hanging on the lateral walls of the foyer, in memory of important presences and events; the few words imprinted in each of them freeze time and pass on some of the most important moments of the Theatre's history.In particular, we remember the unique and unforgettable performance by Alessandro Bonci in his Theatre, in the “Faust” of 1904.
Marble Slab by UnknownComune di Cesena
We also find the ancient resonance of Marietta Alboni’s voice, which from Cesena sang all over the world...
Marble Slab by UnknownComune di Cesena
...and also the recent presence of Luciano Pavarotti, who chose the Bonci Theatre to record the video-clip of his great success, “Ti adoro”.
"The fine arts"
Between the eight slabs on the sides of the Foyer mentioned above, the eighth has a particular value: it was placed in 1946 for the first centenary of the Theatre and, above all, to remember the recovery and restoration of parts that had suffered damage during the war, which were made in record time.
The Stalls
It is a large square, which is located in the middle of the horseshoe plant that constitutes the Bonci, as for all Italian classic Theatres. The cavea is entirely in wood, perfect in proportions, and there are four orders, in addition to the gallery.The walls are treated with polished stucco and decorated with raphaelesque and friezes; the decorations are sober and with delicate colours; with the recent restoration the original shades have been recovered and enhanced by the choice of using the green colour for the fabrics of the curtain, for the valances and the seats.
The Vault
Of particular artistic interest for art lovers is the vault of the room, where we find four panels with the episodes of the Divine Comedy and four roundels with allegorical figures, painted by Francesco Migliari inside a dense monochrome decoration and partly gilded arabesques.
The Mystical Gulf
Per quanto riguarda le novità, l’unica modifica importante all’impianto progettuale originario è stata l’apertura del Golfo Mistico, o Buca d’Orchestra - vale a dire lo spazio tra il palco e la platea, dove poteva prendere posto l’orchestra. Questa introduzione non ha cambiato l’ottima acustica né lo sguardo che dalla platea si spinge fino al palcoscenico.
Il Golfo Mistico del Bonci deve la sua costruzione al mutare delle preferenze e alle scelte dei compositori: crescevano le dimensioni dell’orchestra e la complessità delle scenografie, la loro profondità e la nuova prospettiva consentita dall’illuminazione novecentesca. Così, eliminato il proscenio dal quale i cantanti si sporgevano verso il pubblico, l’orchestra trovò una nuova collocazione e venne nascosta agli occhi degli spettatori.
The Orders
If we look up from the stalls, we see that the four order of the theatre boxes are modulated according to balance and measure: no one prevails over others, neither the most important. These boxes, contrary to what happened in other cities, have always remained public in Cesena. They never became private and they have never been an exclusive possession of the most prominent aristocratic families.
The orders by UnknownComune di Cesena
From the boxes the spectators could accomplish, better than on the stalls, the different and preferred occupations: to converse, to court, to comment, even to eat or to withdraw.
The most privileged could even close the curtains or move to the backstages – which today, like the corridors and stairs, have become place to exhibitions and museum spaces.
Detail by UnknownComune di Cesena
Alive remain the anecdotes and stories passed from mouth to mouth over the decades, that still today, renew the charm of the “old Italian theatre”.
The Lodge
The fifth and last floor of the amphitheater is the Lodge, an open space without separated boxes. Here the spectators could watch the show all together.The point of view is unique here: the audience was dominated and the fate of the interpreters was literally in the mouth of the loggionists.
Teatro Bonci (1843) by Vincenzo GhinelliComune di Cesena
They lived a parallel society and, above all, they were immersed in the beauty, from here truly extraordinary, of the building: the magnificence of the central chandelier; the chromatic richness of the vault, here more legible than elsewhere; the grandiosity of the scenic arch decorated with woods and stuccos where the central clock stands; the vertical, vertiginous vision of the stage.
The Ridotto
Now let’s leave the boxes to enter the Ridotto of the Theatre, which can be accessed from a door located in the current Museum of the Audience. The Ridotto’s history is parallel to the one of the theatre itself: political debates, concerts, theatrical experimentation shows, educational activities in the musical field… this is the Ridotto: a crossroads of cultural and social city life, today destined to integrate the theatrical program and to make available the spaces of the artistic and theatrical world, among the liveliest in Italy.
The Stage
And now let’s move to the beating heart of the Theatre: the stage.From the Lodge it is possible to frame a segment, the proscenium, which before the twentieth century’s transformation was in the place of the current Mystical Gulf. In that little corner the singers positioned themselves for the romances and to collect applause or ward off whistles.The curtain is an innovative feature of the twentieth century: now it opens like a curtain, horizontally and continuously, while originally it was used a velarium, a curtain that was raised on the “French way”, vertically, in three phases. The original Antonino Pio’s velarium represented the “Dante’s Apotheosis”, a scene where the poet was crowned to the glory of Italy. The current velarium is instead a recent work of the contemporary painter Massimo Pulini, who wanted to echo a classical myth.
Teatro Bonci (1843) by Vincenzo GhinelliComune di Cesena
The width of the Bonci stage is exceptional: with its squaring of about 25 meters it allows to create any kind of show, even the most impressive. It is reported an Aida with horses, Ronconian scenographies, musical comedies of Garinei and Giovannini, American musicals: enough to remember that this is the stage of a theatre, of a real theatre, since it can host a show with a scenographic space and a staircase for above than two hundred of spectators!
The Trellis
Climbing the stairs to the trellis is an adventure. This is the reign of the theatre’s machinists, those who are involved in the creation and movement of the scenes. No one else can access it.A large gallery runs around the stage on three sides and allows to reach a ladder, small and steep, that climbs up to the real trellis, a network of beams and joists to which dozens of spools are attached, around which the ropes run. Here are preserved two noise machines, once used to reproduce the effect of thunder and lightning.Walking on the trellis gives a sensation of emptiness, of soaring in flight, of having the earth several tens of meters below. The emotion is unique. As big as the stage, everywhere taller than a man, it’s almost a theatre inside the Theatre.
Restoration works
Considering the great artistic and architectural value of the Bonci’s Theatre, and in order to preserve the place from the inexorable passing of time, the extraordinary maintenance works will affect the audience, the stage, the backstage area and all the rest of the building.
Linda Bondanini, Università di Bologna
Mariasole Lega, Assessorato alla Cultura
Franco Pollini, Teatro Bonci
