City Secrets Rome: The Essential Insider's Guide, Revised and Updated by

Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Fang Duff Kahn Publishers
Published: 2011-05-31T16:00:00+00:00

8.6 Teatro Argentina

Largo di Torre Argentina 52

06 68 40 001; www.teatrodiroma.net

Italians take their opera seriously, and this is a theater where Rossini was booed. The Teatro Argentina was built in 1732, adjacent to the ancient porticoes of the Theater of Pompeii the Great, and atop the ruins of the Curia Pompeii Senate Hall, where Julius Caesar was assassinated. The theater quickly gained a reputation as one of Rome’s most prominent opera houses. A number of important premieres occurred here, including two of Verdi’s early operas (I due Foscari in 1844 and La battaglia di Legnano in 1849), but nothing in its long history tops the world premiere of Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia on February 20, 1816. Shouted off the stage at its riotous first night (perhaps by fans of rival composer Paisiello, whose own version of Beaumarchais’s play had been a popular hit since 1782), Rossini’s score managed to achieve worldwide fame in spite of its initial flop at the Argentina. The theater has undergone numerous renovations across the centuries, but retains much of its original shape and design.

ROBERT MARX

Robert Marx, an essayist on theater and opera, has served as the director of the theater program at the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts.

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