A New Concert Hall for Florence

Did you have a chance to read last week's post regarding Nativity scenes? It wasn't too hard to guess who did what, right? The Venetian painter is Giorgione. The answers to last week’s blog post are:

Painting 1. Sandro Botticelli, Adoration of the Magi, 1475-1476, Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Painting 2. Domenico Ghirlandaio, Adoration of the Shepherds, 1482-1485, Church of Santa Trinità, Florence
Painting 3. Giorgione, Allendale Nativity/Adoration of the Shepherds, 1505, National Gallery of Art Washington.


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(photo: Elizabeth)

 Now on to this week's post about Florence's new concert hall. It’s always nice to go to the theater, especially around the holidays. My husband and I had the opportunity to see a Ballet before Christmas at Florence’s brand new concert hall – Teatro dell’Opera di Firenze. With all the talk in Italy of austerity measures, layoffs, additional property taxes, pension reductions and salary freezes the inauguration of a super modern concert hall is certainly a breath of fresh air.
The local administration is taking a big bet on culture. Instead of halting construction on this massive project (you can imagine the controversy that has been going on) plans continued and were executed on time. The inaugural celebrations of the Teatro dell’Opera were held over the holidays with a series of different concerts and ballets from 21 December to 1 January 2012. Zubin Mehta, who has been the chief conductor of the Maggio Orchestra since 1985, cut the inaugural banner of the hall instead of the Mayor!  

(Photo: Elizabeth)

The new theater is very modern, has great acoustics and an inside space that holds up to 1800 people! An outdoor amphitheater has been constructed that can hold upwards of 2000 people. This is the new home for the historic Maggio Musicale Fiorentino - one of the oldest and most prestigious European Music Festivals together with Bayreuth and Salisburg. As part of 'The Maggio' there is the Maggio Orchestra, the Maggio Chorus and the MaggioDanza ballet troupe.
We hope Florence's bet will pay off and that the community (and beyond) will continue to support world class music events and dance venues. It sure beats a reality show.  

Below is a video explanation of the complex.



- Posted by Elizabeth