Teatro Rossini of Lugo

Lugo di Romagna (Italy)

The curtain made of FOT - Otello velvet with NDA - Decorative appliqués and endowed with a Traveller curtain and a Swag curtain, is so described by the great scenographer of Modena Koki Fregni (1930-1994), who planned stage technique works renewed during the restauration.«The top and the curtain, surely manufactured in the period among the two wars, showed such a poverty of materials and executions ...»

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«... that it would have been absurd to propose them again.It was done then a careful analysis and new materials were introduced, for safety reasons too.The painted ornament were replaced with the embroidered ornament. The heraldry of the town was done with an embroidered relief and NFR - Fringes and NAG - Agremani and NFI - Tassels were applied with moderation, also not to overwhelm the sobriety that luckily belongs to the hall.»

«We decided to use a silent engine with variable speed to allow a swag or imperial opening, as it is the tradition in Italian opera theatre (how many have repented because of having abandoned this wonderful opening). Simultaneously and with the same means, it is possible also a traveller opening, much more suited to prose performances.» The Swag curtain is endowed with a varying speed automatism system ...

... while the Traveller curtain is realized with a Laser track.The curtain is opened on the Stage masking made of black COS - Oscurante molton.Pier Luigi Cervellati, professor at the Faculty of Architecture of Venice, at the end of the works declared the principles of inspiration of the guidelines of what, more than a restoration, for the fidelity that was given to the pre-existing situation at the moment of the restoration ...

... can be described a conservative maintenance operation, despite the building was in particularly degraded conditions.«... the best compliment that we hope will be that that will say: ''The theatre does not seem even restored.This is the same theatre of immemorial times, the theatre we had in our memory''.Or even: ''It is the theatre that we imagined it had been, even if we never saw it''.»The layout of the hall, in the shape of a bell, is designed ...

... by the ticinese architect Francesco Ambrogio Petrocchi, who, in 1759, built the external walls, the roof, and ended, perhaps, the front.Petrocchi was in dispute for the project of the interior of the theatre with the Bolognese architect Scandellari, and the dispute had to be so hard to suggest to the administrators of Lugo to entrust the completion of the theatre no to the very important ''architetto imperiale di Carlo VI imperadore'' Antonio Galli Bibiena, among the greatest Italian set designers and architects of the '700 (then he will devote to the Teatro Comunale of Bologna, since 1763, and to Teatro Scientifico of Mantua, since 1767).

This horseshoe-shaped layout is instead that of the restructuring carried out in 1819 by Mantua's architect Leandro Marconi, which in addition to changing the curve of the boxes added the gallery and changed the structure of the proscenium, giving to the Teatro Rossini of Lugo the appearance restored from the restoration of 1986.But the proportions of the theatre remain those of the original structure designed by Petrocchi, intact today, that shows a metric modular plan - which coincids with the elevation – where to the cavea and to the stage are reserved the identical perfect proportions.

The comparison between the cross-section of Petrocchi and the restoration project of the 1986 confirms how the structural system of 1759 has come to our day essentially unchanged.The biggest difference concerns the flattening of the vault of the hall, introduced by Marconi in 1819, in order to enter a gallery above the fourth order of the boxes.The only remaining trace documenting the original appearance of the boxes designed by Bibiena ...

The Teatro Rossini is a Italian-style theatre' with a horseshoe-shaped hall with four tiers of boxes and a gallery, 448 seats.
It's one of the oldest Italian theatres preserved today.

1757

The construction of the theatre is decided.

1759

Construction of the structural parts, designed by Francesco Ambrogio Petrocchi (1706-1778), begins.

1760

Antonio Galli da Bibbiena designes and completes the interiors.

1761

The theater is inaugurated.

1819

Leandro Marconi (1763-1837) renovates the interiors.

1855

The stucco decorations are redone by Benedetto Crescentini.

1859

The theatre is dedicated to Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868), who lived in Lugo between the 1802 and 1804.

1984

The restoration of the theatre begins, it is designed by Pierluigi Cervellati who also supervises the work.
Koki Fregni designes the stagecraft.

1986

The theatre is reopened.

Materials used in this production

2MS - S engine

Engines for tracks

COS - Oscurante

Duvetyne and blackout fabrics

Fixed blocks for flyloft

Fly facilities

Flyloft system

Fly facilities

FOT - Otello

Velvets

NAG - Agremano

Trimmings

NBT - Bordo traforato

Trimmings

NDA - Decorative appliqués

Trimmings

NFR - Fringes

Trimmings

Stage maskings

Acoustic curtains

Swag curtains

Typology of curtain

Traveller curtains

Typology of curtain

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