Teatro Politeama Boglione

The Politeama Boglione is Bra's civic theatre: a neoclassical hall with a long colonnaded facade and a crowning dome, opened in 1900 with Verdi's Rigoletto, closed in 1985, restored from 2000, and reopened in 2004.

Why it matters

The Politeama's construction was made possible by Giuseppe Boglione's bequest. It became a civic theatre for prose, opera, concerts and other performances.

What to notice

A long ground-floor portico stretches along the facade on Piazza Carlo Alberto, and a dome rises above the body of the building. The design blends a sober neoclassical structure with the grain of the surrounding blocks rather than standing apart from them. Inside, the auditorium is a working twentieth century house, not a gilded nineteenth century showpiece: the 2004 restoration was deliberately modern in spirit, so the historic shell sits alongside a contemporary technical fit-out.

Context and history

The theatre was inaugurated on 1 September 1900 with a performance of Verdi's Rigoletto. The design is attributed to the Milanese engineer Sfondrini, whose other theatre work included Rome's Teatro Costanzi and Padua's Teatro Verdi. Through the twentieth century the Politeama carried nearly every kind of performance Bra could want: prose drama, opera, theatre in dialect and, for many years, film screenings. The stage hosted major Italian actors and authors over the decades — among them Dario Fo, who appeared with Franca Rame in 1965.

The building closed in 1985 and stood unused for some fifteen years. Restoration began in 2000 on a project by the Bra architect Filippo Bellonio, winner of a design competition held by the municipal administration, and the theatre reopened on 4 May 2004 with a concert by the orchestra of the Teatro Regio in Turin.