Teatro Massimo Bellini, Catania, Italy

The Teatro Massimo Bellini is an opera house in Catania. Named after the local-born composer Vincenzo Bellini, it was inaugurated in 1890 with a performance of the composer's masterwork, Norma.

The exterior of the house matches the distinctive Sicilian Baroque style of the neighboring buildings of the late 17th Century. Its marble foyer, the “Ridotto”, is ornate and stuccoed, and a statue of Bellini is located between the central arches. The beautiful red-plush interior includes the main floor seating and four tiers of boxes. Surrounding them, on the upper level, are unusual arched arcades. The painted ceiling by Ernesto Bellandi depicts scenes from four of Bellini's most well-known operas.

Throughout its history, the opera house has performed almost all of Bellini's work. From its beginnings, a wide variety of operas have been performed by some highly renowned singers. In 1951, to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of Bellini, Maria Callas sang Norma, repeating her success in 1952 and 1953.

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Ивайло Стоянов (9 months ago)
Greath theatre with beautiful atmosphere and amazing acoustic. From 9:00 am to 12:00 am there is a guide tour for 8 euro. Recommend for visitors of Catania.

Paix SurTerre (11 months ago)
Fabulous acoustics, excellent performance by the philharmonic symphony orchestra and absolutely stunning opera house - well worth visiting - Maestro Salvatore Percacciolo presented an excellent program.

Jovanaa Mladenovic (11 months ago)
The guide (the gilr with alergy :) ) is excellent, she is sooo cute, she had all our attention and her English is fantastic, well done! Teatro is marvelous, you must see it! P.s. note to guides, let us 5-6 minuts to take a pictures to ourselfs when you finish. :)

carolyn taylor (12 months ago)
Absolutely beautiful architecture. The opera was fantastic. Staff at ticket office were wonderful.

Milan Stosic (2 years ago)
My first visit to a teatro big as this one and I’m fascinated. We tool a guided tour (6.5 eur/person) and the guideance was bilingual (Italian and English). I definitelly want to experience an opera in this place.

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The ancient Argos Theater was built in 320 BC. and is located in Argos, Greece against Larissa Hill. Nearby from this site is Agora, Roman Odeon, and the Baths of Argos. The theater is one of the largest architectural developments in Greece and was renovated in ca 120 AD.

The Hellenistic theater at Argos is cut into the hillside of the Larisa, with 90 steps up a steep incline, forming a narrow rectilinear cavea. Among the largest theaters in Greece, it held about 20,000 spectators and is divided by two landings into three horizontal sections. Staircases further divide the cavea into four cunei, corresponding to the tribes of Argos A high wall was erected to prevent unauthorized access into the theatron and may have helped the acoustics, but it is said the sound quality is still very good today.

Around 120 CE, both theaters were renovated in the Roman style.

Teatro Massimo Bellini

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