Teatro San Carlo

Naples

The main curtain, made of FTA - Tancredi 500 velvet, special red colour, was made up with 20% vertical fullness and lined with HSV - Trevi satin.The reduced fullness, or absent in the valance, has the function of displaying in a legible way the surprising decorative and symbolic apparatus that focuses the spectator's attention on the portal.

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The curtain, whose two panels measure 11.5 x h 14 m each, can be opened as a Fly curtain, as a Traveller curtain and as a Swag curtain.Painted in 1854 by Giuseppe Mancinelli ...

... the historical curtain represents a symbolic Parnassus that reunites, together with Dante Alighieri, some among the greatest Greek and Latin poets, among which Humerus and Virgil.The largest and most singular pictorial decoration in the hall, however, is the one above it and is ...

... another painting on canvas.Created in 1824 by Antonio, Giovanni, and Giuseppe Cammarano, the ceiling depicts a sky in which Apollo presents the world's greatest poets to Minerva and contributes significantly to the hall's acoustics, unanimously considered perfect.The mythological scene is surrounded by a garland of flowers ...

... with five drapes with concentric fullness that crown the large suspended coat of arms, which is also highlighted by four NCS - Decorative cords with golden NFI - TasselsThe concentric lateral drapes converge, at the bottom ...

... towards a cockade of about a meter in diameter from which hangs a draped tormentor, decorated with trimmings and with about seventy golden tassels.The curtain, on the other hand, boasts 142 gold applique decorations that refer ...

... to the heraldic figure prevalent in the coat of arms of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies: the fleur-de-lis.The fleur-de-lis are interspersed with golden buttons.In smaller dimensions, the fleur-de-lis is also repeated along the upper edge of the opulent decoration adorning the bottom of the curtain, where Mauro Carosi revisits, with a large applied decoration, the classic motif ...

The Teatro San Carlo is a Italian-style theatre with a horseshoe-shaped hall, with five tiers of boxex and a gallery.
It can accommodate 1,386 spectators.
It is the oldest among the most prestigious Italian theaters and one of the oldest still operating theaters in the world.

1737

On November 4th, the theater, built to a design by Giovanni Antonio Medrano, is inaugurated.

1809 / 1811

Antonio Niccolini is commissioned to renovate the theater and gives the hall its current appearance.

1816

The theater is partially destroyed by a fire and is rebuilt by Niccolini himself.

1824

Antonio, Giovanni, and Giuseppe Cammarano paint the large canvas that decorates the ceiling of the hall.

1943

Bombings during World War II cause extensive damage to the building.

1944 / 2008

Reconstruction and adaptation work to new safety standards are carried out several times, reducing the theater's capacity from the original nearly 3,400 spectators to its current capacity.

2001

Replacement of the main curtain, designed by Neapolitan set designer Mauro Carosi (1945).

Materials used in this production

Concentric fullness

Fabric: tailoring types

Flat making

Fabric: tailoring types

Fly curtains

Typology of curtain

FTA - Tancredi 500

Velvets

HST - Satin Trevira

Silks and satins

NCS - Decorative cords

Trimmings

NDA - Decorative appliqués

Trimmings

NFI - Tassels

Trimmings

NFR - Fringes

Trimmings

Vertical fullness

Fabric: tailoring types

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