Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi di Trieste

The Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi in Trieste, born as Teatro Nuovo, is among the oldest opera houses in the world and boasts uninterrupted activity since its inauguration on the 21 April 1801. It was built, on the proposal of Giovanni Matteo Tommasini, between 1798 and 1801 by the architects Giannantonio Selva (who also designed the Teatro La Fenice in Venice) and Matteo Pertsch, on a free area facing the sea, located between the commercial and economic centres – the new Borgo Teresiano built during the 18th century, and the Piazza Grande, the heart of political power. The Fondazione Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi in Trieste has its own stable orchestral and choral ensembles, scenography and tailoring workshops; it also carries out intense theatrical and musical activity throughout the year, structured in an opera and ballet season, a rich season of symphony concerts, school shows, chamber concerts, operetta performances in the historic International Operetta Festival which in the second half of the 20th century was an extraordinary success with the public and critics. it constantly exhibits its own orchestra and choir with performances in all the theatres of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region. The billboards of the Teatro Verdi have always hosted the most famous artists of international renown. Among its contemporaries the conductors Herbert von Karajan, Claudio Abbado, Paul van Kempen, Thomas Schippers, Mario Rossi, Carlo Maria Giulini, Laslo Somogyi, Leonard Bernstein, Sergiu Celibidache, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Gary Bertini, Nello Santi, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Riccardo Muti, Daniel Oren, Gustav Kuhn, Stefan Anton Reck, Pinchas Steinberg, Bruno Campanella, Donato Renzetti, Oleg Caetani; singers include Beniamino Gigli, Lina Cavalieri, Rosina Storchio, Gilda Della Rizza, Toti Dal Monte, Cesare Siepi, Aureliano Pertile, Magda Oliviero, Renata Tebaldi, Maria Callas, Franco Corelli, Carlo Cossutta, Piero Cappuccilli, José Carreras, Daniela Dessì, Katia Ricciarelli, Raina Kabaivanska, Marcelo Alvarez, Daniela Barcellona, Ildebrando D’Arcangelo, Juan Diego Florez, Jose Cura, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Renato Bruson, Fiorenza Cedolions, Juan Pons, Leo Nucci.