Petruzzelli Theatre, Bari 🏛🎶🇮🇹

Originally inaugurated in 1903 with an opera by Jacob Meyerbeer, and almost completely destroyed by a devasting fire in 1991, it took an enormous effort to be reconstructed and restored to its former glory. In 2009 the Teatro Petruzzelli, the cultural gem and largest theatre of Apulia, was re-inaugurated. Since then The Petruzzelli Foundation is managing the venue and its productions that span to opera, ballet, prose, classical and more contemporary music.

The auditorium is the forth largest theatre in Italy and one of the most prestigious opera houses in the country, with annual productions of opera, ballet and classical concerts of world class quality. Since its reopening in 2009, the opera house has been proposing to its public a balanced mixture of traditional and popular productions, along with some proposals that bring some elements of innovation and experimentation to the seasonal programme,

The name of the theatre comes from the family who commissioned it at the end of the 19th century, as a cultural hub and a private initiative for Southern Italy. At that time the primary role for the region was played by the San Carlo theatre in Naples that had been the centre point of musical life since 1738 and was linked to the Royal Court of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies based in Naples.

Among the most recent productions I have enjoyed there I recall a brilliant Traviata, with huge audience success during the Xmas period a couple of years ago, a dramatically intense Tosca, a touching Andrea Chenier and a vivacious Merry Widow. The artistic directorship of the opera house offers to its public a varied programma that includes guaranteed successes from the traditional repertoire and some new productions of lesser known operas, possibly by local composers,