Opera theaters owe a lot to Venice as apparently it was in 1637 in a Venetian theater where, in exchange for a ticket, you could attend the first public representation of an opera.
Let’s see what made that first representation so significant for the history of opera houses.
The Tron Opera Theater at San Cassian
That opera house was a private property of the noble family Tron. This family chose to erect the theater in a very lively area, although not exactly prestigious. It was at the margin of Rialto and its trade headquarters, in the area called San Cassian. Very significantly, it lay quite close to what was until the middle of the 16th century the red light district in Venice, the so-called Carampane area.
Ponte delle Tette in the ancient red light district at Rialto, Venice
The theater no longer exists, as it was demolished in 1812. Still you can find some traces of the lost theater in the names of the streets nearby, still mentioning a “commedia” or “corte del teatro”. Where the theater used to be, you will now discover a secret garden. The garden is secluded to most, connected to the noble Palazzo Albrizzi via a romantic suspended bridge built between the noble floor and a high brick wall.
A bridge connecting to the private garden in Santa Croce, near Campiello Albrizzi, where the San Cassian Theater used to be, Venice
Corte del Teatro in Santa Croce where once the San Cassian opera theater owned by the Tron Family once was
When was the Tron opera house erected and what did it look like?
Around fifty years before that historical event of a public representation of an opera in exchange for a ticket, a first theatre was erected in the same area. However, that theater was not for opera, but for comedy and/or tragedy. Quite a revolutionary idea, as it was the time of the Counter Reformation, when the Catholic Church controlled any public event making sure it would respect strict catholic canons.
Prose theaters were however different from this one the family Tron financed. This new theater was exceptionally monumental, very beautiful, elegant and decorated. This has puzzled historians as theaters for prose usually aimed at creating a strict relationship between acting and audience.
Instead the Tron theater in the late 1580s featured stalls and several rows of boxes. Likely its ground plan was horseshoe-shaped. The stage was not in the middle of the space, but separated. Maybe the owners had already in mind some kind of a musical performance: it is with music, in fact, that you need some distance between the space for musicians and the audience so that the sound uniformly reaches the ones listening.
Tickets to pay to attend an opera
However, what made that first opera performance so unique is that it was not a free event, it was not arranged for a court and their selected guests. It was open to anyone as long as you paid a ticket. The transformation of a musical show into business is, together with the architecture of the theater, the other major contribution Venice gave to modern opera houses.
The economic character of this brand new enterprise also explains why opera houses could not be small: the more people attending, the more financial support and less risks. However, not just the audience paid a ticket, but you could also rent your own box, the “palchetto”.
Gabriel Bella, The San Samuele Opera Theatre as it appeared in 1753: mirrors and chandeliers as designed by Antonio Codognato, Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice
The “palchetto” as a status symbol for a new female audience
In English the word “box” does not really well translate the Italian word “palchetto”, which literally stands for “small stage”. I know it’s a box, but yes, it is also a small stage where you can be watched while you watch. Now, the point is that in Venice you would not go to theater for the show on the stage. At least not only!
So, if the so-called opera theater “in the Venetian fashion” soon became the inspirational model for what we call still today the “Italian theater”, the reason was that you enjoyed an opera “raised to the power 2”, just as in mathematics: large stalls where you can rent for one evening your seat and a three-tier balcony (or four-) where the “palchetti” were hired for a season.
A 360-degree show. In other words, exciting.
Gabriel Bella, The San Benedetto Opera Theatre as in 1774 when a wonderful banquet was arranged for the son of the Empress Catherine II and his wife, Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice
When the Tron opera theater was rebuilt in 1756 there was a five-tier balcony, by each row you had 31 boxes. What happened in these boxes needs some attention…
A show in the show: opera theaters as intimate spaces
The idea of the “box” in a theater was not new, but in this brand new context and with such a high number of boxes available, the “palchetto” really became a unique extra stage. The ground plan of the theatre allowed you to watch the people attending and not just the musicians or the singers.
You would rent a box, furnish it with a mirror, a sofa, a chandelier. You would invite your family, or your lovers. It would be separate and locked, you held the key. A private, intimate space of your own. And not just for men.
When the noblewoman Chiara Pisani Moretta lost her husband, she acquired three boxes in three different theaters in town. It sounds like a great deal.
Façade of Palazzo Pisani Moretta along the Grand Canal, San Polo, Venice
That’s already in the 18th century, but it explains very well what development opera theaters in Venice experienced after that very first theater arranged an opera in 1637. A new audience composed of women started enjoying their life in the theaters of Venice: the box was a status symbol where you exhibited yourself or where you retired yourself.
The family Grimani: entrepreneurs of opera theaters
It became a business and a cultural activity some more noble families invested in. After 1637, a second opera house opened in 1639 in Venice near Campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo, in calle Testa, managed by the powerful family Grimani.
This family, was extremely active in this field. It was during the Carnival in 1642 for this very theatre that Claudio Monteverdi composed his magnificent “The Coronation of Poppaea”. Wonderful theatrical machines, constant change of stage scenery thrilled the whole audience.
In 1677 still the Grimanis opened another theater on the ruins of Marco Polo’s house in San Giovanni Crisostomo, more classical, for musical compositions written by Handel and Scarlatti. Still the Grimanis: in 1710 in San Samuele another theater. In 1755 the last one, called San Benedetto.
San Giovanni Crisostomo Theater once owned by the Grimani family, now known as Maria Malibran Theater, Venice
Today in Venice, you will enjoy wonderful shows at the Fenice Opera house, or at the Malibran theater (the original San Giovanni Crisostomo). The other theaters have become cinemas or were demolished or burnt down. Personally I still hope in the reconstruction of the San Cassian theater as proposed by entrepreneur and musicologist Paul Atkin: https://www.teatrosancassiano.it
In the 18th century Venice Carnival was attractive for the opera theaters, over 14 theaters active: an extraordinary measure to attract high level visitors.
The Fenice Opera House after the reconstruction in 2003 based on the previous theater dating back to 1836, Venice
by Luisella Romeo
registered tourist guide in Venice, Italy
www.seevenice.it
