Teatro Sociale di Rovigo

Located in Piazza Garibaldi, where the small convent of S. Maria dei Battuti once stood, the Teatro Sociale, or rather the “Società del Teatro” as it was called, was erected between 1817 and 1819, based on a project by the engineer from Rovigo Sante Baseggio, an expert in theatrical design.

After the inauguration which took place on the evening of 3 March 1819 for the occasion of the visit to Rovigo by Emperor Francis I of Habsburg, in 1902 the large hall of the Theater built in wood to favor perfect acoustics, was destroyed by a fire, perhaps due to the gas lighting.

The immense love for melodrama and music on the part of the citizens of Rovigo meant that the Theatre, of which the neoclassical facade and foyer fortunately remained unscathed, was rebuilt in less than two years.

On 12 October 1904, with the opera “Iris” directed by Pietro Mascagni, the new Teatro Sociale was inaugurated.

For its reconstruction, avant-garde solutions were adopted such as the use of reinforced concrete and – the first theater in the Veneto – new decorative pictorial styles in the Liberty style.

Inserted in 1967, in the small group of “traditional opera houses”, today the program of the Sociale boasts a varied programming, that alternates the traditional opera season with the appreciated seasons of prose, ballet and concerts.