Type:

Luoghi della cultura; Oggetto fisico

Category:

Architectural Heritage; Museums

“Della Concordia” Theater The Teatro della Concordia is located in the heart of the ancient center of Monte Castello di Vibio, a small town standing on the right side of the Tiber River Valley, not far from Todi. The theater, with its 99 seats—stalls and seats inside the boxes in total—is known as “the smallest theater in the world”. In a document of the time one can read: “it was built of this size because of the size of its burgh”. It was designed in the full post-French-Revolution period, and took the name of the same “concord between people” that was going to be recreated in Europe at the beginning of the 19th century. Built thanks to the financing of nine illustrious families of the village, who did everything possible to make it a place of meetings and fun, it was inaugurated in 1808. Restructured at the end of the same century, in 1892, it was frescoed by Luigi Allegretti—at the time only 14 years old—son of Cesare Allegretti, a Perugian painter who had already painted the decoration of the stage curtain and backdrop of the theater. In 1914, 36 stalls—today 37—were installed in the parterre. Unfortunately the theater was closed in 1951, and some time in the 1960s the ceiling collapsed. The work of recovery of the original wooden structures, which support the boxes ended in 1993. In 1997, the “smallest theater in the world” entered into a “twin” relationship with the Teatro Farnese of Parma, the “largest theater in the world”, which has four thousand seats. In 1929, the young soprano singer Antonietta Stella of Todi, who would later become one of the best interpreters of the repertory of the Maestro Giuseppe Verdi, sang on this stage. In 1945, this theater saw the beginning of the career of another celebrity, the then very young Gina Lollobrigida; in fact she performed here in the role of the Santarellina, a comedy of Eduardo Scarpetta, mise–en scène and directed by Tenneroni, an Artistic Director and Manager from Todi.