Grandi teatri italiani

Italian

The architectural solution which is usual today for opera houses is only one of the many that have in the old Italian theaters their own origin. As a matter of fact, the roots of Western theater's architecture have to be searched for in Italy, in the needs and habits of small ancient courts, where this structure was developed upon.

The diffusion in Europe and then in the whole Western world of this architectural structure, in a definite stage of its evolution (close to the end, in the second half of XIX century) made this subject of some interest for people GTI frontespiziobelonging to a non-Italian culture because of the increasing difficulty in understanding the cultural and historical meaning of the architectural elements of which the theater consists. It shows a certain number of ways of soft, never concluded mediation -very Italian indeed- between historically given situation and needs and requests of renewal. This book is a help in understanding the history of this development and it provides some links between the architectural shape of the theater, the Italian cultural (national?) life and the concrete requirements of the stage work inside it along two centuries.

 On the other hand, the Italian architectural synthesis is a enlightening point of view for experiences, like the Richard Wagner's theater in Bayreuth, the French theory of "polyvalence" -by André Malraux in the Sixties- and the idea based on the project of the "Totaltheater" by Walther Gropius, of a 'perfect architectural shape', a 'building type' or any other hypothesis which seems to build up ideological frames and not to grab the material reasons of each element of this architectural shape. One of the interesting conclusions of the book is, perhaps, that the reasons for that are mostly of a technical and economical nature, in their own historical stage of course, due to the increasing width of the audience, the contemporary development of the cinematographic industry and the television networks, and their architectural consequences on the usual theater building. For instance, the splitting between the movie-house and the movie-studio was only the last act of a large historic tale, through the naturalism and the "fourth wall".The final hypothesis deals with their coming back closer, as it is now made possible by the technical improvement of the reproduceability of performances and of data transmission, which made even more possible an active role for the public, instead of the passive one which was typical of the early experiences of reproduced shows. The book also deals with the various problems and challenges the theater architect or restorer encounter.

The book is also a history of the public, from the nominal identifiablity of the notables to the anonymous (ignominous) passivity of the "masses". Today the development of the media induces the outlining, on the necessary background of the mass-public, of small groups of users with even more identifiables characters and needs, intending to play an active role. The progress and the improvement of the arts/techniques of reproduceability (of memory?) seems oriented in this direction from the beginning of our century. Theater requires a collaborative effort by professionals in different fields, and the book tries to reflect this heterogeneity. As professor of history of the Italian theater Ferdinando Taviani observed, Italian theater workers "specialize in not specializing [sono specializzati a non essere specializzati]". What are the consequences of the contemporary presence of these two publics, both the passive and the active, on acting? Which image of the contemporary actor will the architectural mirror return? 

Grandi teatri italiani, Francesco Sforza, ISBN 88-7060-259-1, Editalia, Rome, 1993, Lit. 98.000, pg 200, cm. 24x31, 210 colours and BW images

Critica/Criticism