The Teatro comunale Città di Vicenza is a modern theatre designed by the architect Gino Valle, inaugurated in 2007 on viale Mazzini, which offers seasons of dance, drama, symphonic and chamber music.
What to see
The theatre has two halls: the larger with 910 seats and the ridotto with 380. The seats are red and all the flooring is wood; the interior lining is black and is rhythmed by suspended acoustic panels that carry sound from the stage to the stalls, while the joints between the panels hide indirect LED lighting with slits of light that articulate walls and ceiling. The stage of the main hall has many stage machines: a translating and rotating platform, the stage floor divided into four sectors that can be repositioned at different levels, and an orchestra pit with a movable multi-level part. Outside, the building alternates bands of red brick with inserts of white stone, which recall the medieval walls opposite and the colours of the city.
Until the Second World War Vicenza had several theatres: the Teatro Olimpico, Palladio's masterpiece, the Teatro Eretenio, built in 1784, and the Teatro Verdi, which had been called «comunale» since 1886 and took the name Verdi in 1901. In the Allied bombing of 2 April 1944 the last two were reduced to a heap of rubble, and the Olimpico could not bear the strain alone, because it has limited seating, unchangeable scenery and no heating. The story of the new theatre has been particularly painful: it lasted sixty years and considered thirty-six studies and projects. In 1969 the comune asked Vicentines to choose among three projects by Carlo Scarpa, Franco Albini and Ignazio Gardella, shown at palazzo Chiericati, but the process stalled; in 1979 the city council approved Gardella's project for viale Verdi, which however in the autumn of 1980 was rejected by the ministry as harmful to Campo Marzo. In the spring of 1985 another area was chosen, that of viale Mazzini, and the project by the Udine architect Gino Valle became the theatre inaugurated in 2007.
Visiting
The theatre offers seasons of dance, drama, symphonic and chamber music; the calendar, tickets and visits should be checked on the theatre's website or with the comune, because the sources consulted do not give them.
Our editors' tip
Look at the suspended black acoustic panels in the hall and at the bands of red brick and white stone outside: the latter recall the medieval walls opposite, the former hide the indirect LED lights.
