Description of the attraction
The history of the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari began at the end of the 19th century, when Onofrio and Antonio Petruzzelli, merchants and shipbuilders from Trieste, presented to the city hall a theater project by their half-brother, engineer Angelo Messeni. In 1896, a contract was signed between the Petruzzelli family and the municipality of Bari for the construction of the theater. The construction itself began in 1898 and ended in 1903. Having become the largest in Puglia, the theater was painted by the artist Raffaele Armenise. On February 14, 1903, the grand opening of the theater took place with the production of "The Huguenots" by Giacomo Meyerbeer.
In the 1980s, the Teatro Petruzzelli became one of the main theater stages not only in Italy, but also in Europe. Here were staged "Iphigenia in Taurida" by Niccolo Piccini, which had been staged for the last time in 1779 in Paris, and the Neapolitan version of Bellini's "Puritans", which was written by Maria Malibran and which had not been staged before. In addition, world-famous ballet companies and musicians performed on the theater stage - Herbert von Karajan, Rudolf Nureyev, Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Liza Minnelli, Luciano Pavarotti and others. Franco Zeffirelli shot a number of scenes for his films here, and the entire theater building can be see Alberto Sordi in Stardust.
In October 1991 on the stage of the Teatro Petruzzelli "Norma" was performed with great success. But on the night of October 26-27, a terrible fire broke out, which completely destroyed the building. In November 2002, at the Ministry of Culture, the theater owners, the administration of Bari, the provincial governments of Bari and Apulia signed a protocol of intent to restore the theater. Then there were long "showdowns" between the owners of the theater and the local authorities about who should sponsor the reconstruction. As a result, the Teatro Petruzzelli was restored only in 2008, and entirely with money collected by the residents of the city. The official opening took place only in October 2009, 18 years after the fire. On that day, Bach's Ninth Symphony was performed on stage under the direction of conductor Fabio Mastrangelo. The first opera on the new stage was Princess Turandot by Giacomo Puccini.
