Teatro Olimpico, Vicenza

Interesting facts

The street scenes look as if they run far into the distance, yet the sets actually recede only a few metres behind the stage wall.

The seating was planned so that every place in the house has a view down at least one of the seven painted streets.

Palladio squeezed the theatre into a disused fortress, the Castello del Territorio, which had served as a prison and gunpowder store.

Because the old fortress was wide and shallow, Palladio flattened the Roman semicircle of seats into an ellipse.

The land behind the stage was bought only in 1582, and the building gained an apse-shaped bulge to fit the longest street view.

Scamozzi also designed oil lamps of glass that lit the miniature houses from inside; they have been used only rarely since, including for a 1997 Oedipus Rex.

The theatre has no heating or air conditioning, since changes in temperature and humidity could harm its delicate wooden structures.

Scamozzi made the street entrance arch the same size and shape as the central arch of the stage, but rusticated it to suit the medieval wall.

The English architect Inigo Jones visited soon after completion and noted with admiration that every seat offered one of the perspective views.

Despite its famous opening, the theatre was almost abandoned after only a handful of productions, which helped the original scenery survive untouched.

Why it is worth it

The Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza is the last design of Andrea Palladio and one of only three Renaissance theatres to survive, together with those of Sabbioneta and Parma. It was commissioned in 1580 by the Accademia Olimpica, the city's society of scholars and gentlemen, of which Palladio was himself a member. The academicians wanted a theatre "in the ancient manner", built from what the Renaissance had learned of Roman theatres through Vitruvius and the study of ruins. Palladio died that August, only months after work began, and the architect Vincenzo Scamozzi carried the project through. The theatre opened on 3 March 1585 with Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, with music by Andrea Gabrielli.

The auditorium is a steep semi-ellipse of wooden steps crowned by a colonnade of Corinthian columns with statues, and above it the ceiling is painted as an open sky with clouds, so that the whole interior pretends to be a Roman theatre under the open air. Facing it rises the scaenae frons, the stage wall, a towering façade of columns, niches, reliefs and statues, all executed in wood and stucco made to look like marble. The figures in the niches are the academicians themselves, dressed as ancients; the reliefs above tell stories of Hercules.

The real magic lies behind the three openings in that wall. Through them run seven streets of ancient Thebes, built by Scamozzi for the opening performance: short, steeply rising lanes of palaces and houses that use forced perspective to look as if they stretch far into the distance. They have stayed in place ever since and are now the oldest stage scenery still in existence. The Olimpico is part of the World Heritage Site of the City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto, and it still hosts plays and concerts, with audiences limited to about four hundred to protect the fragile interior.

Getting there

The theatre is in the historic centre of Vicenza, about 0.4 km from the heart of the city. The centre is compact and easily walked from Vicenza railway station. The nearest airport is Treviso (TSF), about 52 km away.

From the encyclopaedia

The Teatro Olimpico is a theatre in Vicenza, northern Italy, constructed in 1580–1585. It was the final design by the Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio and was not completed until after his death. The trompe-l'œil onstage scenery, designed by Vincenzo Scamozzi to give the appearance of long streets receding to a distant horizon, was installed in 1585 for the first performance held in the theatre, and is the oldest surviving stage set still in existence. The full Roman-style scaenae frons back screen across the stage is made from wood and stucco imitating marble. It was the home of the Accademia Olimpica, which was founded there in 1555.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Teatro Olimpico, Vicenza

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

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From the encyclopaedia