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Riccardi did not lose heart and promptly rebuilt his Theatre. Especially since Bergamo, in the meantime, was completely lacking in theatres and had to resort to seasons in temporary fairground shacks. The renovated Riccardi Theatre was rebuilt entirely in masonry and, again by the architect Lucchini, rose once more imposing than before, embellished with chiaroscuro paintings by Bonomini, one of the most original painters of the period between the 18th and 19th centuries (but during the restoration work in 1870 his contribution to the theatre was lost). The Riccardi Theatre reopened to the public on 30th June 1800 with a prose performance. The Second Cisalpine Republic was established, and French troops garrisoned Bergamo. Various types of performances were given at the Riccardi Theatre in honour of the new rulers. The period was marked by Riccardi’s legal-economic troubles and then those of his relatives, to whom the ownership and administration of the Theatre passed. Artistically, the beginning of the century saw the affirmation at the Riccardi of an illustrious musician from Bavaria, who had become a native of Bergamo, Giovanni Simone Mayr; the extraordinary impulse he gave to the musical life of the city was also exercised in the opera performances at the Riccardi from 1801, although it was only from 1802 that the musician settled definitively in the city, intervening directly for several years in the staging of his operas. In the same year he was appointed director of the Chapel of Santa Maria Maggiore and in 1805 he founded the Charitable music lessons, later the Musicale Institute, where he was Donizetti’s maestro and spiritual father. In the second decade of the century, it was Rossini’s turn: it was in fact the works of the musician from Pesaro that dominated the Riccardi in this period. << Previous << Next >> >>

The Theatre, designed by Giovanni Francesco Lucchini, was inaugurated on 24th August 1791. The layout of the Italian-style hall (with three tiers of boxes and a loggia) in the form of an elongated ellipse guaranteed perfect visibility and excellent acoustics. The opera performed was the Didone abbandonata, conducted by C.B. Rovelli, the founder of a family of musicians from Bergamo. The Teatro Riccardi (as it is now called) had a plastered façade preceded by a small portico, vastly different from the monumental façade of today. In the following years, the Theatre operated regularly in the permitted periods (spring and summer, as well as for the Fair), but in 1797 a serious disaster occurred: the Theatre was destroyed by fire. The flames devoured all the wooden parts on the night of 11th January, the day before the start of the Opera Season. The incident has a political aspect, as it seems that the accident was not accidental but caused by people with an interest in creating disorder. << Previous << Next >> >>

The Donizetti Theatre in Bergamo has a complex history. The Donizetti Theatre in Bergamo has a complex history. It was founded in the 18th century, initially taking the name of its builder, Bortolo Riccardi, a silk producer and merchant. In the heart of Lower Bergamo, the ancient Sant’Alessandro Local Fair was held, a large annual market whose centre of gravity was today’s Piazza Dante, where there was a vast brickwork quadrilateral with small shops arranged in rows. The complex was a reference point for business trading, a meeting place, and a place of entertainment. It was on the site where one of these temporary theatres was usually erected that Bortolo Riccardi a member of a lively and enterprising Bergamasque family of merchants, planned to build a permanent theatre in masonry with a wooden roof, even though to do so he had to circumvent the city regulations and those of the Maggiore Hospital, the institution that owned the land on which the Fair was located, which imposed the characteristics of temporariness. With decision and unscrupulousness, Riccardi laid the stone foundations and began to erect the brick pillars. To continue the construction of the theatre, it was necessary to sell the boxes; the purchasers of the time, as in large cities, were members of the great noble families, sometimes of the upper middle class. Riccardi did not wait for the completion of the structure to use the theatre, which for the time being had no name (it was called Teatro Nuovo al Prato di Fiera or Teatro Nuovo or Teatro di Fiera): it was built piece by piece amidst controversy and financial straits but was used for performances well before the official inauguration. << Previous << Next >> >>