Jump to content

Teatro Coccia

Coordinates: 45°26′43.91″N 8°37′05.52″E / 45.4455306°N 8.6182000°E / 45.4455306; 8.6182000
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Teatro Coccia
The theatre seen from Puccini Square
Map
AddressVia F.lli Rosselli 47 – 28100
Novara
Italy
Coordinates45°26′43.91″N 8°37′05.52″E / 45.4455306°N 8.6182000°E / 45.4455306; 8.6182000
Capacity918 (1,800 up to last restoration)
Construction
Opened22 December 1888, with the opera Les Huguenots by G. Meyerbeer, directed by Arturo Toscanini.
ArchitectGiuseppe Oliverio
Website
www.fondazioneteatrococcia.it

Teatro Coccia (pronounced [teˈaːtro ˈkɔttʃa], "Coccia Theatre") is the main opera house in Novara (as well as one of the major traditional Italian theatres), and is also the most important "historical" theatres in Piedmont. It faces along via Fratelli Rosselli, and delimits piazza dei Martiri to the west and piazza Giacomo Puccini to the east.

History

[edit]

Back in the day, Novara did not have a permanent theatre, and operas took place in private venues, such as noblemen's rooms and courts. The preferred venue was Casa Petazzi, equipped with a gallery and boxes. Count Luigi Maria Torinelli, together with the newly formed Società dei Palchettisti (English: Society of Box Holders), provided the funds for a new theatre. The new theater was called Teatro Civico, also known as Teatro Nuovo. Construction works started in 1777. The opera house was completed in two years, being inaugurated in 1779 (with Medonte re d'Epiro by Giuseppe Sarti) on a project of Cosimo Morelli.[1][2] The Galliari brothers completed the decorations on the interior, as well as the stage curtain. On the latter, they depicted Hercules, the mythological founder of the city. The boxes were covered in blue silk, and they held carved seats in rich brocade. Luigi Canonica restructured the Civico/Nuovo in 1830. Between 1853 and 1855 the Teatro Sociale, a second theatre, opened in Novara. A fierce competition between the Teatro Sociale, hosting minor companies and promoting young talents, and the Teatro Civico/Nuovo, later renamed Teatro Antico, ensued. When Carlo Coccia died in 1873, the Antico's name was changed again, in Teatro Coccia.[1][3]

The municipal council of Novara acquired both theatres in 1880, willing to replace them with a new opera house, since the Teatro Nuovo's capacity was considered inadequate to the demands of the day,[1][2] as a result, in 1886 the Teatro Nuovo was demolished.[2][3] At that time, in fact, the city saw a notable demographic growth and an affirmation of the bourgeoisie, increasingly turning to the world of culture, where the interest in theatrical performances was not limited only to the noble and prestigious families of Novara but involved the rest of the citizenship. Already around 1860 the Novara architect Alessandro Antonelli had proposed the merger of the Teatro Nuovo with the Teatro Sociale, to unify the various types of shows in a single building, but the majestic project was judged too expensive and disproportionate to the demands and financial resources of the city.[1]

Carlo Coccia

On 13 April 1873, in Novara, Carlo Coccia, who had been for more than thirty years master of the Cappella del Capitolo del Duomo (which boasts an important tradition of opera masters, such as Pietro Generali, Saverio Mercadante and Antonio Cagnoni), as well as director of the Civic Institute of Music "Brera", died. As mentioned, the Teatro Nuovo, which for some time had required its own name, to worthily honour the distinguished musician, took the latter's name on 6 July of the same year. The contract of 9 March 1886, was entrusted to the Milanese architect Giuseppe Oliverio to the detriment of the too expensive project developed by Andrea Scala.[3][2]

Architecture

[edit]

In 1886 work began on the new Coccia; a lot of material from the previous theatre was used, which was almost completely demolished.

The new complex occupied an area four times larger and was oriented differently than the old theatre, with the entrance on the current via Fratelli Rosselli instead of today's largo Puccini. The external perimeter was surrounded by a porch in pink Baveno granite, with Doric style columns, and by a single floor with huge windows (alternating, also, with Ionic style columns).[1]

View from the stage

Even today the grandeur of the horseshoe-shaped room is striking, surrounded by three orders of large boxes, the first gallery and the loggione, all decorated in the Renaissance style, with a series of Corinthian cast-iron columns surmounted by a sculpture depicting a swan. The capacity of the hall was 1500 seats, with a maximum of 1800 people; the latest restoration works, however, have reduced the capacity, bringing the number of seats to 918. The proscenium is 14 metres long, the depth is 23 metres, while the scenic tower of the grating is 22.5 metres high. There is also another hall for shows, called "Piccolo Coccia", with a capacity of 200 seats. The last restoration, completed in 1993, has brought back the original colours of the room (velvets in antique pink, ivory and gold decorations), after the changes that took place in the 20s/30s of the last century, which had replaced the upholstery with the red colour, and made total gilding of the parapets of the boxes.[3]

Great debuts and artistic activity

[edit]
Arturo Toscanini inaugurated the Teatro Coccia with Les Huguenots, followed by the Aida and La forza del destino

The inauguration of the new Coccia Theater took place on the evening of 22 December 1888, with the opera Les Huguenots by Giacomo Meyerbeer, directed by the great virtuoso conductor Arturo Toscanini.[3][4][1] Probably due to the complexity of the music, the inaugural opera was not well received.[1] The Maestro Toscanini would direct in the Novara temple also Aida and La forza del destino by Giuseppe Verdi, as part of the inaugural season of the theater, conducted by Toscanini.[4][3] On 21 December 1893, the second version of Giacomo Puccini's Manon Lescaut was performed for the first time at the Coccia.[5] At the turn of 1895 and 1896, Maestro Antonino Palminteri directed respectively Tannhäuser by Richard Wagner and Loreley by Alfredo Catalani. In December 1900 Antonino Palminteri returned to Coccia to conduct Tosca and the success was so resounding that La Stampa expressed itself as follows: "The Tosca at the Coccia. As for the [...] splendid performance, the orchestra conducted by Palminteri, which he played with such confidence that it certainly did not reveal it was a first performance. And credit for this goes to maestro Palminteri who was able to give impetus, color and effectiveness [...] and therefore Puccini's music was well enjoyed." Giacomo Puccini sent to Maestro Antonino Palminteri a telegram reading : "Giacomo Puccini gratefully rejoices with the Egr. M° Palminteri and with the performers for the success obtained in Novara [...] Greetings and best wishes, G.Puccini."[6]

Carmen Melis debuted with Iris and was the protagonist of Poliuto and Tosca at the Teatro Coccia of Novara

An article in the Corriere della Sera of 1932 defined the Coccia theater as the antechamber for the Teatro alla Scala. This flattery is due to the fact that many of the great artists of the world opera scene made their debut on the Novara stage, such as the soprano Carmen Melis in Iris by Pietro Mascagni (1905/06 season),[7] the soprano Gilda Dalla Rizza in La forza del destino by Giuseppe Verdi (1912/13 season), the tenor Antonio Melandri in Lucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti (season 1922/23), soprano Sara Scuderi in Il Trovatore by Giuseppe Verdi (season 1924/25), the Novara tenor Angelo Badà (one of the most famous supporting actors of the early 1900s). In recent years, the prestigious sticks of Gino Marinuzzi, Antonino Palminteri, Lorenzo Molajoli, Pietro Fabbroni, Napoleone Annovazzi, Pietro Mascagni, Giuseppe Podestà, Alberto Franchetti, Federico Del Cupolo and Arturo Lucon (who will be the artistic director of the Coccia from 1945 until his death in 1950) dominated the podium of the Novara theater. It should also be noted of the many presences of artists such as Mafalda Favero, Gina Cigna, Lina Pagliughi, Toti Dal Monte, Rosetta Pampanini, Lina Bruna Rasa, Clara Petrella, Bianca Scacciati, Mercedes Capsir, Giuseppina Cobelli, Tito Schipa, Augusto Ferrauto, Aureliano Pertile, Carlo Galeffi, Luciano Neroni, Giulio Neri, Galliano Masini, Mario Filippeschi, Giuseppe Valdengo, Antonio Salvarezza, Mariano Stabile, Giovanni Inghilleri and Enzo Mascherini.

The 1940s saw another great debut (despite the world conflict, the theatre would continue its activity): on the podium of the "Coccia" stepped for the first time Novara's own Guido Cantelli[8][3] with La traviata by Giuseppe Verdi (with Gina Cigna). Cantelli in 1943, after the huge success, directed Madama Butterfly by Puccini, a second Traviata with Margherita Carosio, Afro Poli and Giacinto Prandelli, the Werther by Jules Massenet (with Giovanni Malipiero), and in 1945 Tosca. In the following years, up to the end of the 70s, in the Novara seasons the big names were always protagonists, indeed Renata Tebaldi, Mario Del Monaco, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Boris Christoff, Virginia Zeani, Anna De Cavalieri, Ebe Stignani, Giulietta Simionato, Nicola Filacuridi, Aldo Protti, Anna Moffo, Rita Orlandi Malaspina, Margherita Guglielmi, Giulio Fioravanti, Gianna Galli, Bonaldo Giaiotti and Giovanna Casolla came to perform at the Novara theater. The most assiduous conductors of these years are Franco Patanè, Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, Napoleone Annovazzi, Alberto Zedda and Armando Gatto. In the 1964/65 season, Luchino Visconti directed La traviata.

Riccardo Muti, winner of the 4th edition of the Cantelli Award, was the chosen director on the day of the theatre's reopening, on January 21, 1993

Another great debut at the Coccia theatre was that of Riccardo Muti, winner of the "Cantelli Award" in 1967, a competition for young conductors.

In 1983 the sopranos Daniela Dessì, in L'elisir d'amore by Gaetano Donizetti, and Denia Mazzola Gavazzeni, in A Masked Ball by Giuseppe Verdi, made their debut at the Coccia. In 1986 it was then the turn of the tenor Luca Canonici in Rigoletto by Verdi; this was the last year before the big restoration. The theatre, which is still owned by the "palchettisti's" society, was sold to the municipality in 1986[3] (on a proposal strongly supported by Umberto Orsini from Novara), which assumed all the rights for the adaptation and renovation. The reopening took place in 1993 with a concert by the La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Muti,[3] and the opera season reopened with the opera Les Huguenots by Meyerbeer, with Katia Ricciarelli, Nikola Gjuzelev and the debutante Paoletta Marrocu. In the following years, the Novarese stage was walked by such singers as Luciana Serra, Cecilia Gasdia, Tiziana Fabbricini, Daniela Lojarro, Enzo Dara, Alberto Gazale, Franco Vassallo (who made his debut at the Coccia with L'amico Fritz in 1994), Marco Berti, Giorgio Surian, Patrizia Ciofi, Giorgio Zancanaro, Stefania Bonfadelli, Dīmītra Theodosiou, Roberto Aronica, Veronica Simeoni, Bruno Praticò and Jessica Pratt; conductors and directors such as Nello Santi, Matteo Beltrami, Andrean Battistoni, Bruno Aprea, Franco Zeffirelli, Beppe de Tomasi, Pierluigi Pizzi, Giorgio Gallione, Alberto Fassini, Renato Bonajuto, Dario Argento, Daniele Abbado.

Most performed operas at the Coccia Theatre since 1888

[edit]
Author Title First performance Last performance Presenze nelle stagioni
Verdi La traviata 1892 2019 27
Puccini La bohème 1896 2016 22
Puccini Tosca 1900 2014 22
Puccini Madama Butterfly 1906 2017 22
Verdi Rigoletto 1890 2011 20
Rossini The Barber of Seville 1894 2015 18
Mascagni Cavalleria rusticana 1891 2010 16
Bizet Carmen 1889 2012 14
Leoncavallo Pagliacci 1895 2010 14
Verdi Il trovatore 1894 2005 12
Donizetti Lucia di Lammermoor 1896 2012 12
Donizetti Don Pasquale 1897 2011 12
Verdi Aida 1888 2016 12
Puccini Manon Lescaut 1893 1999 10
Verdi Otello 1890 2007 9
Verdi Un ballo in maschera 1894 1983 9
Giordano Andrea Chénier 1908 1980 8
Puccini Turandot 1926 2015 8
Ponchielli La Gioconda 1889 1951 7
Donizetti L'elisir d'amore 1897 2006 7
Verdi La forza del destino 1888 1953 6
Cimarosa Il matrimonio segreto 1911 2012 6
Bellini La sonnambula 1894 2006 5
Massenet Manon 1899 1956 5
Mascagni L'amico Fritz 1905 1994 5
Donizetti La Favorita 1889 1913 4
Giordano Fedora 1903 1940 4
Catalani La Wally 1907 1938 4
Meyerbeer Gli Ugonotti 1888 1993 3
Verdi Ernani 1890 2019 4
Boito Mefistofele 1891 1937 3
Wagner Lohengrin 1892 1960 3
Catalani Loreley 1895 1925 3
Gounod Faust 1896 2005 3
Donizetti La figlia del reggimento 1897 2007 3
Cilea Adriana Lecouvreur 1903 2008 3
Mascagni Isabeau 1911 1933 3
Puccini La fanciulla del West 1912 1940 3
Verdi Macbeth 1999 2014 2
Catalani Edmea 1893 1915 2
Thomas Mignon 1893 1923 2
Cagnoni Papà Martin 1898 1933 2
Perosi La resurrezione di Lazzaro 1902 1923 2
Mascagni Iris 1905 1923 2
Verdi Falstaff 1906 1993 2
Massenet Thais 1913 1928 2
Massenet Werther 1920 1944 2
Rossini Cenerentola 1920 1997 2
Zandonai Francesca da Rimini 1925 1941 2
Mascagni Il piccolo Marat 1925 1937 2
Wolf-Ferrari Il segreto di Susanna 1927 1942 2
Mussorgsky Boris Godunov 1927 1932 2
Halévy La Juive 1894 1894 1
Sciortino La Paura 2015 2015 1
Coletta Il canto dell'amore trionfante 2014 2014 1
Wagner Tannhäuser 1895 1895 1
Floridia Maruzza 1896 1896 1
Ricci Crispino e la comare 1897 1897 1
Auber Fra Diavolo 1897 1897 1
Serria La campana dell'eremitaggio 1897 1897 1
De Ferrari Pipelet 1897 1897 1
Flotow Martha 1899 1899 1
Pedrotti Tutti in maschera 1899 1899 1
Falchi Il trillo del diavolo 1899 1899 1
Verdi I Lombardi alla prima crociata 1901 1901 1
Leoncavallo Zazà 1903 1903 1
Varèse Nerina 1904 1904 1
Zanetti Madre 1904 1904 1
Donizetti Poliuto 1905 1905 1
Montemezzi Giovanni Gallurese 1905 1905 1
Meyerbeer L'africana 1907 1907 1
Mascagni Silvano 1908 1908 1
Massenet La navarraise 1908 1908 1
Alfano Risurrezione 1910 1910 1
Wolf-Ferrari Le donne curiose 1913 1913 1
Berlioz La damnation de Faust 1913 1913 1
Pacini Saffo 1913 1913 1
Viscardini Orma 1914 1914 1
Bondonio Sulle rive del Danubio 1920 1920 1
Bondonio Antigone 1920 1920 1
Mascagni Lodoletta 1923 1923 1
Wagner Die Walküre 1924 1924 1
Vittadini Anima allegra 1926 1926 1
Puccini Suor Angelica 1927 1927 1
Puccini Gianni Schicchi 1927 1927 1
Pergolesi La serva padrona 1928 1928 1
Trentinaglia Rosmunda 1928 1928 1
Rossini Guglielmo Tell 1928 1928 1
Saint-Saëns Samson et Dalila 1929 1929 1
Rossini Il viaggio a Reims 2015 2015 1
Verdi Don Carlo 1980 1980 1

Guido Cantelli Award

[edit]

On 3 October 1961, the first edition of the "Guido Cantelli Award" took place in the Coccia theatre. This competition, which was won by numerous world-famous conductors, ran until 1980.

Riccardo Muti, winner of the 1967 Cantelli Award, Teatro Coccia
Donato Renzetti, winner of the 1980 Cantelli Award, Teatro Coccia
Edition Year Award Winner Orchestra
1 1961 I winner Hermann Michael I Pomeriggi musicali
2 1963 I winner Eliahu Inbal Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala
3 1965 I winner Walter Gilessen Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala
4 1967 I winner Riccardo Muti Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala
5 1969 I winner James Frazier Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala
6 1971 I winner Inoue Michiyoshi Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala
7 1973 II winners (Ex aequo) Ádám Fischer, Lothar Zagrosek Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala
8 1975 I winner Hubert Soudant Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala
9 1977 I winner Wojciech Michniewski Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala
10 1980 I winner Donato Renzetti Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala
[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d e f g Lynn, Karyl Charna (2005). Italian Opera Houses and Festivals. Scarecrow Press. pp. 55–61. ISBN 9781461706786.
  2. ^ a b c d Novara – Arte, Scuola e Archeologia. via National Central Library of Rome. 1888. pp. 30–31.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Pandiani, Paola (2001). I luoghi della musica. Touring Club Italiano. p. 37. ISBN 9788836528103.
  4. ^ a b Sachs, Harvey (2017). Toscanini: Musician of Conscience. Liveright. pp. x. ISBN 9781631492723.
  5. ^ Flury, Roger (2012). Giacomo Puccini A Discography. Scarecrow Press. p. 15. ISBN 9780810883291.
  6. ^ Angela Balistreri, "Antonino Palminteri un artista gentiluomo nel panorama operistico dell'800", Partanna, Produzioni Edivideo, 2010, pp. 116, 162 e 170
  7. ^ "MELIS, Carmen". Enciclopedia italiana. Archived from the original on 26 May 2021. Retrieved 4 July 2021.
  8. ^ "Cantèlli, Guido". Enciclopedia italiana. Archived from the original on 7 July 2017. Retrieved 4 July 2021.