Description
The Teatro Politeama Garibaldi is Palermo's grand nineteenth-century theater, on Piazza Ruggero Settimo, where Viale della Libertà ends. It is considered the "heart" of the city, and Palermitans simply call it the Politeama, like the square around it.
The wow moment is the entrance: a triumphal arch crowned by the bronze quadriga of Apollo, by Mario Rutelli, flanked by a pair of bronze horses by Benedetto Civiletti. Behind it curves a cylindrical body that recalls the Pantheon.
The design is by Giuseppe Damiani Almeyda, who looked to Rome and Pompeii: two tiers of columns as in an amphitheater and, in the loggias, polychrome decorations in Pompeian style, restored in 2000.
Inside is the horseshoe-shaped hall, with two rows of boxes and a broad gallery on two levels. It is the theater-circus type: the semicylindrical shape of the facade hides the auditorium. It was conceived as a "people's theater": in 1874 it could hold five thousand spectators, at a time when theaters were for the few.
The Politeama began as an open-air daytime theater, and only later was it decided to cover it. It opened on June 7, 1874 with Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi, when it was still unfinished and had no roof.
The metal roof by the Fonderia Oretea, regarded at the time as a great feat of engineering, arrived only in November 1877. The last embellishments were made in 1891, for the grand National Exhibition hosted by Palermo.
For that year's official opening, Verdi's Otello was staged, with the tenor Francesco Tamagno and King Umberto I in the audience. From 1910 to 2006 the Ridotto housed the Gallery of Modern Art.
In the twentieth century the Politeama was also a first-run cinema and a venue for circus shows, alternating with theater. Since 2001 it has been the home of the Sicilian Symphony Orchestra.
The wow moment is the entrance: a triumphal arch crowned by the bronze quadriga of Apollo, by Mario Rutelli, flanked by a pair of bronze horses by Benedetto Civiletti. Behind it curves a cylindrical body that recalls the Pantheon.
The design is by Giuseppe Damiani Almeyda, who looked to Rome and Pompeii: two tiers of columns as in an amphitheater and, in the loggias, polychrome decorations in Pompeian style, restored in 2000.
Inside is the horseshoe-shaped hall, with two rows of boxes and a broad gallery on two levels. It is the theater-circus type: the semicylindrical shape of the facade hides the auditorium. It was conceived as a "people's theater": in 1874 it could hold five thousand spectators, at a time when theaters were for the few.
The Politeama began as an open-air daytime theater, and only later was it decided to cover it. It opened on June 7, 1874 with Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi, when it was still unfinished and had no roof.
The metal roof by the Fonderia Oretea, regarded at the time as a great feat of engineering, arrived only in November 1877. The last embellishments were made in 1891, for the grand National Exhibition hosted by Palermo.
For that year's official opening, Verdi's Otello was staged, with the tenor Francesco Tamagno and King Umberto I in the audience. From 1910 to 2006 the Ridotto housed the Gallery of Modern Art.
In the twentieth century the Politeama was also a first-run cinema and a venue for circus shows, alternating with theater. Since 2001 it has been the home of the Sicilian Symphony Orchestra.