6^th June 2018

During the inspection of the Donizetti Theatre building site, organised by the City of Bergamo for the journalists from the Foundation of the same name, the most used word was strip out. It concerns the removal of every non-structural element of the building: systems, windows and doors, internal partitions, false ceilings.

It was the first step of a complex restructuring, because the city theatre had been remodelled several times: after the mysterious fire of 1797, just six years after its inauguration; with functional interventions in the 19th century (the transformation of the last two tiers of boxes into loggias, because the audience had changed and increased); through restructuring and new volumes in the 20th century.

However, we have already gone further, with demolition, excavation and consolidation work n the boxes and the ceilings of the galleries. Everything that needed to be removed has been removed: the only thing missing is the underground cistern outside the ticket office, whose existence no one suspected (it will also need to be cleaned up). Then it will be time for reconstruction.

Photo by Gianfranco Rota