Description of the attraction
The Marsala City Theater is named after St. Francis. The official document on the construction of the theater was signed on May 11, 1807: "Don Leopoldo Fedele, a high-ranking city official, was given the long-awaited permission to build a theater in Marsala in a suitable location for staging comedies, tragedies and musical operas." Fedele, in turn, gave the order for the construction to Giovanni Nuccio, a noble city dweller.
Construction work began almost immediately, in 1807, and was completed in record time. Until 1824, new performances were regularly staged on the theater stage, but in 1826 the theater was closed due to some legal difficulties. Only in 1840, the city administration began to use the building for public purposes, including for staging new theatrical performances, which went on with constant success. The concert of the great pianist Alfred Corto in 1952 was a grandiose event. Then it housed the prestigious city music school, led by maestro Giovanni Galvano - it was a kind of base of western Sicily for all future musicians and the only institution of this kind until 1968. In that year, a terrible earthquake struck, and the theater was closed, as the building and interior decoration were seriously damaged and became unusable. Only in 1983, restoration work began, which lasted until 1989. And the grand opening of the theater took place in November 1994 - that evening the famous Italian singer Andrea Bocelli performed on its stage.
Today, the theater, named after the late composer Eliodoro Sollima, seats about 300 spectators. It consists of a huge ground floor, three seating boxes and a spacious gallery.
