The Argentina Theater has very ancient origins as it stands in the place where the great hall known as the Curia Pompeii, where Julius Caesar was killed, was located.
The first inauguration, however, dates back to January 13, 1732 with the opera Berenice by Domenico Sarro when the theater was owned by the Sforza Cesarini family.
In modern times, shortly after the grand opening of the eighteenth century, the Argentina Theater immediately conquered a leading role in theatrical offerings of the city. While welcoming performances of all kinds - often with dancing and numbers on the rope, though rarely comedies - throughout the eighteenth century, the new theater, called upon to deal with ruthless competition, opened instead to the famous Carnival celebrations in Rome, a highly attended and celebrated event in the capital of the Papal States like in Venice with great pomp and popular involvement.
Since the early 1800s, the theater has welcomed acclaimed Rossini operas and even the masterpieces of Cimarosa and Donizetti, while the acclaimed concert that Paganini performed in the room above the vestibule occurred in 1827.
In 1849, the Argentina Theatre saw the debut of The Battle of Legnano, music by Giuseppe Verdi; Romans flocked to the theater where, in a patriotic outpouring, they cheered enthusiastically and strongly for the work of the Master from Busseto, taking the opportunity to protest against the oppression of the Papal States and the French presence.
When Rome became the capital in 1870, it underwent an urban transformation of strong symbolic value - with the axis that joined Via Nazionale to Piazza Venezia and continued towards Piazza Argentina until Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, thus sealing the joint between the secular part of the city and the Vatican – the Argentina Theater finds itself, symbolically, in the middle of this travel and social network. It is in this context of urban reorganization that the historical building was acquired by the Municipality so that it could adopt its own theater of institutional representation.
From the beginning of the 1900s, the Argentina Theater became a first class theater which fundamental vocation – ever since then - is to give space to dramaturgical research, valuing new proposals and hosting the great interpreters of the Italian scene.
Information
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Location
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