Teatro Valle

The Teatro Valle is located in the Rione Sant'Eustachio in Rome and is still in operation as the capital's oldest theater.

It was designed in 1726 by the architect Tommaso Morelli on behalf of the Capranica family . It opened with the staging of the tragedy Matilde by Simon Falconio Pratola on January 7, 1727.

After the house dedicated a season to the opera seria in 1730, the performance in the second half of the eighteenth century was primarily limited to dramas in prose, as well as intermezzi and comic operas. Mainly opera buffers by Baldassare Galuppi , Niccolò Piccinni (ten operas), Pasquale Anfossi , Antonio Sacchini , Giovanni Paisiello , Pietro Alessandro Guglielmi , Pietro Carlo Guglielmi and Domenico Cimarosa (twelve operas) were performed. In 1782 it was the only theater in Rome; in 1786 an opera was presented in spring, autumn and during the carnival season.

During the nineteenth century, opera buff and semiseries were regularly featured in the Teatro Valle. A number of operas from this period premiered at the Teatro Valle, including Demetrio e Polibio (1812), Torvaldo e Dorliska (1815), and La Cenerentola (1817) by Gioachino Rossini ; Il geloso ravveduto by Saverio Mercadante ; L'ajo nell'imbarazzo (1824), Olivo e Pasquale (1827), Il furioso all'isola di San Domingo (1833), and Torquato Tasso (1833) by Gaetano Donizetti ; La gioventù di Enrico V (1820) by Giovanni Pacini ; L'orfana di Ginevra (1829), Il sonnambulo (1829), and Chi dura vince (1834) by Luigi Ricci , as well as many lesser-known works by local composers.

The number of seats in the Teatro Valle initially consisted of five tiers with 27 boxes. It was renovated by Mauro Fontana in 1765 and renovated again in 1791. In 1821 the theater was completed according to a design by Valadier von Salvi and in 1845 a facade - designed by Gaspare Servi - was added. Today it contains four tiers of boxes and a gallery.

Since the middle of the 19th century, only spoken pieces have been played in the Teatro Valle. Luigi Pirandello's play Six People Looking for an Author was premiered in this theater in 1921.

The state subsidy for the theater was discontinued in 2010, as with many other publicly supported ensembles. When in June 2011 it was feared that the theater would lose its independence and be commercially privatized, the building was occupied by a group of activists (actors, musicians, directors and technical staff). The occupation continued until 2014.