Turin, Palazzo Madama tells the story of theater between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries with set designs

From June 20 to September 9, 2024, Palazzo Madama in Turin presents the exhibition Theaters and Small Theaters. The Arts of the Stage between the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries in the Collections of Palazzo Madama. The exhibition offers a selection of materials concerning the history of theater, including various groups of set designs. These include works by Filippo Juvarra for Cardinal Ottoboni’s theater, contained in the first two volumes of drawings by the architect from Messina. In addition, there are scenic sketches by the Galli da Bibiena, the brothers Bernardino, Fabrizio and Giuseppe Galliari, Pietro Gonzaga and Romolo Liverani, created for musical operas performed in the theaters of Turin, Milan and Parma from 1750 until the end of the following century.

Displayed alongside these graphic masterpieces are Giovanni Michele Graneri’s painting depicting the interior of the Teatro Regio in Turin during the staging of Lucio Papirio in 1752, and a fan depicting the Teatro Regio and Teatro Carignano with the boxes and names of the spectators from the 1780-1781 theater season. The historical and bibliographical arrangement of all these works is due to Mercedes Viale Ferrero (1924-2019), a scholar from Turin and daughter of Vittorio Viale, director of Turin’s Civic Museum of Ancient Art from 1930 to 1965. This year marks the centenary of her birth.

The exhibition also offers the opportunity to showcase a selection of 19th-century puppet theater backdrops, which arrived at Palazzo Madama thanks to Mario Moretti’s bequest in 1984. This collection includes fifteen backdrops, still attached to the original rods, from the theater known as San Martiniano on Via San Francesco d’Assisi in Turin (located near the now-disappeared church of Saints Processo and Martiniano), where the Lupi - Franco company performed. The subjects depicted in these backdrops were historical-political and patriotic in nature, closely related to the ideals of the Risorgimento, and often reproduced operas and dances staged in the main theaters, sometimes with modifications and critical revisions. The scenes were created by the same artists who worked at Teatro Regio and Carignano, including Giuseppe Bertoja, Giovanni Venere, and Giuseppe Maria Morgari.

Also on display will be six backdrops and a teatrino, or the structure used to mount and store the drapes, equipped with wooden rods and decorations.

For info: https://www.palazzomadamatorino.it/

Turin, Palazzo Madama tells the story of theater between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries with set designs

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