That Napoli - according to Telegraph "most beautiful city in Italy"- was always a port of culture as well as of humanity it is well known. The Campania capital preceded important realities in some aspects of social evolution. The Teatro San Carlo, for example, it is one of those signs of the Neapolitan avant-garde.
Teatro San Carlo, gem of the Illuminated Monarch
The San Carlo in Naples precedes the imaginative Phoenix of Venice and the imposing Scala of Milan of almost fifty years. Completed in 1737, it is a frieze of the royal power of Charles III of Spain, a very worthy member of the Bourbon family. With him you will have a flourishing period. The atrocities of the Polish war of succession will be overcome, which had brought him to the throne of the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily only a few years earlier, subjected to Austrian domination until 1734.
For his rare political ability to make "his" companies flourish, he will be remembered as the Illuminated Monarch. Thanks to him, among other things, a rationalization of the legislation (amalgamating a maze of rules that counted at least 11 layers of as many influences), the reorganization of the judiciary and a tax reform.
Naples, the proud European capital
To make beautiful Naples a lady adorned with every rich man status symbol Charles III will give impetus to excellent works. These, even today, still today motivate the vanity of Campania, beautiful like few other territories. There Palace of Caserta, for example, that rivals the one of Versailles but also the hotels of the Poor in Naples and Palermo. Fundamental, then, the interest in the archaeological discoveries brought to light by Weber in Pompeii and Herculaneum.
At the dawn of the 800th century Stendhal wrote that nothing exists that can give the faintest idea of such beauty. To date, the San Carlo Theater remains one of the oldest still active opera houses and is among others the largest. For what the Italian genius is and as you can see by visiting the majestic structure, it still remains a key element in the world cultural scenario. Even in this, Naples will give the rest of Europe something to learn, being its opera house an example for the construction of many other European theaters.
Three centuries of activity and not hearing them
At the theater everything is fake and nothing is fake, you know. Thus, perhaps more than a few other social expressions, it is the theater to be tied hand in glove with the truth of the groups to which it addresses and in which it exists.
Primarily the structure was reserved for those serious performances (serious opera) having relegated the comic opera to “more appropriate” venues (Mercadante Theater, Fiorentini Theater, San Bartolomeo Theater).
If at its dawn that stage was trodden only by artists of the Neapolitan school, exponents of the Naples conservatories, it did not take long for that same stage to be a springboard for some international premieres for fame and prestige.
During the Neapolitan Revolution of 1799 it will be, for the short period in which it will be possible to profess them, place of promotion of the ideals of equality, freedom and brotherhood.
The fire of 1816 will not be enough to extinguish the greatness of the San Carlo: in just over a year it will return to being as magnificent as before with a second inauguration that will be an opportunity for Stendhal to praise its greatness.
Image source: Wikipedia - Armando Mancini Flickr: Naples - San Carlo Theater, CC BY-SA 2.0
Likewise, not even the two world wars of the last twentieth century and the consequent scars have stopped this machine of wonders: after the second world war it will be the first to reopen in Italy. The evolution of the safety regulations and the necessary modernizations have involved a series of works that have followed one another until the 80s and which have respected the original spirit of the Royal Theater.
