The Teatro comunale Cielo d'Alcamo stands opposite the castle of the counts of Modica in Alcamo, and was born from the transformation of the old Teatro comunale Ferrigno. Work on the Ferrigno began around 1846 and the theatre opened on 30 May 1850, the name day of King Ferdinand II, with a comedy by Baron Cosenza preceded by the Bourbon anthem. It was embellished between 1852 and 1854; at the end of the nineteenth century it stayed closed for seven years for a new restoration and reopened in 1902.
What to see
The old theatre had 38 boxes in three tiers, stuccoes by Filippo Rimi of Alcamo and frescoes by Salvatore Nasta of Palermo: on the ceiling, divided into five sections, Apollo and the muses of theatre, Terpsichore, Thalia, Euterpe, Melpomene and Polyhymnia, and below them the figures of Cielo d'Alcamo, Sebastiano Bagolino and Giuseppe Renda. Well-known companies played on its stage, drawing audiences from nearby towns too.
On 18 April 1958 the town council voted unanimously to demolish and rebuild it, to gain a stage suited to large companies and orchestras. The new theatre was finished in October 1961 as the Cine-teatro Euro; in 2001 it was restored and dedicated to Cielo d'Alcamo, the poet of Frederick II's court. Today, without its boxes and frescoes, it has 494 seats in the stalls and 314 in the gallery.
Visiting
The theatre hosts shows during the season: programme, tickets and times should be checked with the municipality.
Our editors' tip
To stay on theme, not far away, in the entrance hall of the town hall on piazza Ciullo, Gino Patti's engravings recall «Rosa fresca aulentissima», the poem by the writer the theatre is named after.
