Donizetti Theatre – Bergamo, Italy

A new theatre

This opera house was built in the heart of the city with the name of Riccardi Theatre in the 1780s. It officially opened in 1791 with a production of Pietro Metastasio’s Didone abbandonata. 

At the end of the century the original theatre was destroyed by a fire (1797) and the new one opened in 1800. The new structure used a horseshoe shape with three tiers of boxes and two galleries. The façade was completely rebuilt by the architect Pietro Via. 

Its current name comes from Gaetano Donizetti, Bergamo’s most famous composer. One of his most famous operas, Il Pigmalione had its world premiere at the theatre in October 1960. What to eat in Bergamo, Italy (part 3)

Outside the theatre, there is a monument dedicated to Donizetti.

The World Wars

Alongside the traditional performances, from 1899 the Donizetti Theatre also hosted a new type of show, the cinematograph. This was an unique feature at the time.

Even during the World War I, the operas and the prose theatre at the Donizetti Theatre continued.

In 1931, the Municipality of Bergamo appointed Bindo Missiroli, a former music critic, as its director. From then on, the theatre was taken over directly by a special commission. Therefore, Missiroli was able to launch the Teatro delle Novità, (The Theatre of New Features). As a result, the initiative affirmed new composers, singers, set designers and directors. The theatre became a laboratory of the performing arts.

During World War II, the shows had a cultural function. Many artists from La Scala moved to Bergamo’s Donizetti Theatre for their work. 

The post-war period marked a reawakening in the intellectual, social, and economic life of the city.

More than an opera house

After World War II, in the 1950s, two concerts officially consecrated jazz as a genre worthy of the Donizetti Theatre as much as classical music or opera.

In 1964, after a few years of renovations, the Theatre opened again to the public with new rooms and a new design.

From the beginning of the 1960s to the end of the 1990s, the range of shows and events was vast: prose, operas and concerts dominated the seasons, but also the International Piano Festival, musical comedies, operettas, “Bergamo Jazz” and “Canzoni d’Autore” (“Songwriters’ Songs). 

The Theatre management was taken over by the newly founded Fondazione Teatro Donizetti (Donizetti Theatre Foundation) in 2014.

In February 2018, an extensive renovation and renewal project began; it aimed to make the city’s Theatre a home for culture.