Teatro Carignano

Facing Palazzo Carignano across its own square, the Teatro Carignano is one of Turin's oldest theatres. Rebuilt by Benedetto Alfieri in the 1750s, scorched by fire, restored to modern standards, it remains the dramatic home of Teatro Stabile Torino.

Why it matters

The Teatro Carignano concentrates much of Turin's theatrical history. Established in the first half of the eighteenth century within a former real-tennis court, it was rebuilt from the foundations in 1752–53 by the court architect Benedetto Alfieri — uncle of the playwright Vittorio Alfieri — and has served the city through successive rebuilding campaigns. It is an early example of the Italian-style playhouse with its tiers of boxes, and it holds a special place in the history of Italian drama: Vittorio Alfieri saw his first play here as a boy and later watched his own tragedies performed on this stage. Since 1961 it has housed the main productions of the Teatro Stabile di Torino, so history and a living repertory coexist in the same auditorium.

What to notice

• The sober Baroque facade on Piazza Carignano, matched by the curved front of Palazzo Carignano opposite, so that the little square reads as an eighteenth-century stage set of its own.
• The classic all'italiana layout — an auditorium of stacked boxes rather than open rows — which the current building has preserved through every rebuilding.
• The reopening marks: after a fire in February 1786, the theatre was reconstructed with four tiers of boxes by Gian Battista Ferroggio, and its later 19th-century works under architect Carrera converted the top tier into a gallery.
• The 2007–2009 restoration removed later additions, recovered the original entrances and converted the former basement beer hall into a foyer.
• On the seat-backs and lobbies, the memory of twentieth-century premieres by D'Annunzio and Pirandello, and of Harold Pinter's appearance here in 2007 when he received the Europe Theatre Prize in one of his last public appearances.

Context and history

The theatre's origins are unusually practical: it began as the "Trincotto Rosso", a court used for pallacorda, a real-tennis game, before the princes of Carignano had it converted into a theatre of fifty-six boxes; drama, singing and ballet were played there from around 1727 under the Società dei Cavalieri. Prince Louis Victor of Carignano then commissioned Benedetto Alfieri to rebuild it completely in 1752–53, on a reduced plan of the court's new Teatro Regio, and the theatre opened at Easter 1753 with Goldoni's "La Calamita de' Cuori". After the 1786 fire and Ferroggio's reconstruction it passed to the City of Turin in 1870; from 1821 to 1855 it housed the Compagnia Reale Sarda, regarded as a forerunner of the modern permanent theatre. The City took full ownership again in 1977 and entrusted management to the Teatro Stabile di Torino, with which the Carignano has been associated since 1961. The most recent restoration, from spring 2007 to 2009, equipped the historic building with contemporary stage technology while returning its eighteenth-century entrances and spatial order.