Teatro Verdi (Theatre)

The theatre is dedicated to Giuseppe Verdi, but was originally called the Regio Teatro Nuovo. Works began on 26 April 1865 and the theatre was inaugurated on 12 November 1867 with the opera Guglielmo Tell by Rossini. Andrea Scala was the architect who started the works, but the completion of the interior was entrusted to architect Giuseppe Giardi, while Simonelli designed the self-supporting dome that overlooks the parterre. All internal ornamentation works were entrusted to Pisan workers. After painting the Triumph of love, Annibale Gatti was commissioned to also paint the curtain used during the act changes. The large curtain depicting Goldoni reading at the Alfea colony was painted on the stage of the Ravvivati theatre.

The Cerratelli collection: although not located in Pisa, but inside the villa Roncioni in the municipality of San Giuliano Terme, we point out this important collection, unique in its kind, born in 1914 by the will of the baritone Arturo Cerratelli, now placed under the care of the Cerratelli Foundation (established in 2005). It is a very rich collection of theatrical and cinematographic stage costumes, used by artists such as Eduardo De Filippo, Luca Ronconi, Giorgio Strehler, Luchino Visconti and Franco Zeffirelli (Romeo and Juliet, 1968). Some clothes were designed by artists from all over the world, such as Renato Guttuso, or Salvator Dalì and worn by singers of the calibre of Maria Callas.

The Titta Ruffo collection: since 1990, the Verdi theatre hosts a collection of stage costumes of the great baritone Titta Ruffo, born in Pisa and died in 1953, donated by his son to the Municipality of Pisa. The collection was later enriched with the clothes of baritone Marcello Rossi and tenor Tito Schipa, for a total of forty-three costumes sewn between 1898 and 1931, and includes accessories, jewellery, wigs, scores and portraits.

On 23 December 1961, Sophia Loren arrived at the Teatro Verdi for the international premiere of the film Madame Sans Gène (directed by Christian Jaque) shot in the studios of Tirrenia and interpreted by her. Loren was already an international diva, very famous for playing a number of roles, including the dancer in Pellegrini d'amore (Pilgrim of Love) in 1954. In Tirrenia, Sophia also starred in the episode of Boccaccio '70: La Riffa (The Raffle ) (1962), and was a tormented Brechtian actress in I sequestrati di Altona (The condemned of Altona) (1962) shot by Vittorio De Sica. All of Pisa wanted to go to the Verdi theatre to see Sophia Loren, but seats were limited and above all it was compulsory for men to wear a tuxedo. Some did not even know what a tuxedo was, very few already had one in their closet. So there were those who had a tuxedo tailored and those who rented one, but when the rental tuxedos in Pisa were sold out some went to look for one in Viareggio, in Florence... and it seems that someone even went to Rome to find one. That evening the theatre hosted 850 people.

I sequestrati di Altona (The condemed of Altona) (1962) by Vittorio De Sica, based on the play with the same title by Jean-Paul Sartre. The protagonist Maximilian Schell, scion of a rich industrial dynasty, decides to remain closed up in the attic of the villa following the traumas suffered during the Second World War on the Russian front. Only the meeting with his sister-in-law, played by Sophia Loren, slowly awakens him to life. The drawings that cover the walls of the attic, where most of the film takes place, are unpublished works of the artist Renato Guttuso.

The internal decoration: the fresco 'Il trionfo dell'Amore' ('The triumph of love'), is part of the decorative cycle of the ballroom of the Verdi Theatre in Pisa, which was painted in 1867 by Annibale Gatti (Forlì, 1827 - Florence, 1909). A cupid stands on a chariot pulled by a tiger and a lion, and in front of him the nymphs play and dance, while behind him are the writers and poets like Dante Alighieri, whom we recognize by the red robe and the laurel wreath on his head, and they follow him as a source of inspiration for their poems.