I’m off to the Goldoni… are you coming?
The Goldoni Theatre is Venice’s theatre par excellence, loved and frequented by people both from the historical centre and from the mainland, which is named after the great playwright Carlo Goldoni. In addition to the repertoire of shows staged by professional actors, the theatre hosts Children’s Theatre activities, events dedicated to families and holds various workshops, including the Citizenship Theatre led by Mattia Berto (see my post…Best Venice Guides – Mattia Berto, giovane regista veneziano: un’intervista) and whose target are citizens aged between 20 and 70. I’m part of it too. As a professional guide, for me this experience has always been a precious source of energy and knowledge.
But let’s go back to the Goldoni Theatre or, to use current official name, Teatro Stabile del Veneto “Carlo Goldoni”, which in 2022 became a National Theatre, becoming one of Italy’s prime excellences. Furthermore, since 1998 the Teatro Stabile del Veneto has managed the Accademia Palcoscenico school for actors.
A short history of the Goldoni theatre
As Mario Isnenghi wrote, talking about Goldoni means talking about the “centre of Venetianness, that is, the life of theatre and life understood as theatre. Born on that very site in 1622 makes it the oldest of the many theaters that have existed in Venice and even… (hear, hear) the oldest Italian-style theater in the world”. Over the centuries, it has changed its name several times: from Teatro Vendramin, after the name of the family that owned it for a long time, to San Salvador, then San Luca and also Teatro Apollo, to finally assume, in 1875, its current name of Teatro Goldoni. The Vendramin family, awarded the Patriciate in 1381, after the Chioggia war, owned houses in the area of the current theatre and Campo San Luca, which were destroyed by the fire in 1595. The Vendramins, instead of having their houses rebuilt, they decided to build a “warehouse, that is, a theatre for performing comedies”.. At the time of the Republic of Venice, the owners of the theatre were noble families, who in running them had not only an economic return, but also a return in image. In the political and cultural sphere, there was no shortage of competition, for example, between the Vendramin and the Grimani, another powerful family. A fire destroyed the San Salvador theatre in 1653, and it was then completely rebuilt. The 18th century was characterised by the presence of Carlo Goldoni, who also thrilled foreign guests and writers such as Johann Wolfgang Goethe with his comedies. In the 19th century, Giacinto Gallina’s comedies arrived to entertain the public, especially with the renewed Venetian company led by the actor Angelo Moro Lin. The 1900s, however, especially 1947, marked the beginning of a long and difficult chapter in the history of the Goldoni, which unfortunately remained closed for a long time, until 1979!
The facade
The history of the facade is rather recent, as the first time the theatre was equipped with a facade was in 1909 and it was called a “railway station”, so let’s just say it wasn’t very popular. The current one is also rather bare and overlooked, which is the case of many other Venetian buildings located in narrow or insufficiently wide streets, but it was embellished, not many years ago, by the work of the sculptor Venetian Gianni Aricò. His are the bronze and crystal portals, which tell of themes that fascinate the attentive observer as he or she slows down and stops to watch: from Venetian festivals to Goldoni’s comedies. It will be fun to discover together how Aricò depicted the six districts (sestieri) that make up the city of Venice.
Carlo Goldoni at the Goldoni
Here is a passage from the Memoires of the great Venetian playwright Carlo Goldoni about his happy experience at the theatre later dedicated to him: “I went from the Sant’Angelo theatre to the San Luca theatre: there were no directors there; the comedians shared the proceeds and the owner of the theatre, who enjoyed the profit from the boxes, set them a fixed salary proportionate to their merit or seniority. I also dealt directly with him: I delivered the plays to him that I was paid for on the job, before the reading; my income had almost doubled…”. Goldoni wrote 60 comedies for San Luca! Particularly successful was Goldoni’s last season at the San Luca theatre, in 1761, when he created masterpieces such as The Holiday Trilogy, Sior Todero Brontolon, Le Baruffe Chiozzotte and One of the Last Evenings of Carnival.
The latest restoration
After six months of closure for restoration, on 30 September 2023, the Goldoni Theatre celebrated its 400 years of history, returning a completely renovated hall to its loyal audience. Between the stalls and four tiers of boxes/galleries, the total number of seats is 785.
Some curiosities
During one of our guided tours, there will be no shortage of curious facts, such as what went down in history as “the hoax of the Goldoni theatre” at the end of the Second World War or the fact that when the theatre was called the Apollo Theatre for a certain period, the shows of the Teatro La Fenice, destroyed by a first fire in 1836, were held right here. Furthermore, the Apollo was the first theatre in Italy to be equipped with gas lighting in 1844 and to offer complete lighting of the hall!All I can say is: see you at the theatre…!
I would like to thank the “TSV – Teatro Nazionale, Teatro Goldoni” for the photographic material they kindly made available to me.
Barbara Tasca
BestVeniceGuides
www.thinkvenice.com