Teatro Comunale del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

The complex events that revolve around the construction of the Municipal Theater of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino sink their roots in the late nineteenth century. In ancient times, it consisted of a single open pit, which was covered by architect Telemaco Bonaiutiin in the period when Florence was Capital (1865-1871), and was called Politeama Fiorentino. Just one year after its inauguration, the new Politeama was struck by a terrible fire that destroyed the stage and caused serious damage. It had at the time a Neoclassical facade. In subsequent years, the arena underwent various interventions of renewal and adaptation, and in 1881 was attributed to the configuration of the indoor theater by Galanti. In 1933, the year in which it is established the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, it was decided to submit the Theater to a radical restoration: the project is written by Alessandro Giuntoli and sculptural part is curated by Mario Moschi and Bruno Innocenti. The first realized decorative figures outside and inside the vestibules, the latter took charge of seven figures in high relief on the arch of the proscenium. Finally, Dino Tofani executed decorations lantern ceiling with the collaboration of Donatello Bianchini. The life of the new architectural entity lasted just over ten years: in 1944 it was seriously damaged by bombing; then, by the flood of Florence, before being rebuilt in its present form, in 1966, of drawing more by Guintoli. The system volume is the result of the aggregation of several buildings. Although the original building remains that not the main facade, in it is still possible to grasp aspects of Neoclassical language typical of nineteenth-century: the end of the basement floor, treated in imitation ashlar, open seven arched openings. The same pattern is repeated on the first floor, where the windows with balustrade are interspersed with small Ionic semi-columns. Adjacent to the facade, develops the Little Theatre, renovated in the 50s. Once through the main entrance leads to a hall, at whose right hand there are the ticket offices and symmetrical staircases leading to the foyer of the first gallery. The big clamshell invaded the room is covered by a ceiling studded concave recessed spotlights: accommodates 884 seats, while the two higher orders of galleries contain about 1200.