Bellini Theater in Adrano
The Teatro Bellini di Adrano , named after the composer Vincenzo Bellini from Catania, is one of the most significant monuments of the city.
Since the first half of the 18th century on the ruins of the church of San Vito, where the current theater stands, there was a small room, where sacred dramas were staged at the request of the Rector of the Chiesa della Catena. In the first half of the 18th century the major noble families of the city decided to build a theater on the ruins of the Church of San Vito. Once the theater was completed, during the subdivision of the boxes various conflicts arose regarding the assignment criteria between the main local noble families. The theater remained active until 1829, after which it fell into disuse due to the dilapidated structure. In 1846, the mayor Don Pietro Sidoti, decided to renovate the theater, entrusting the task to the architect Vincenzo Costa. In the early twentieth century, the completion of the facade was carried out on a project by Gaspare Silvestri Amari. During the Second World War of 1943 the theater suffered serious damage, it was then rearranged and resumed functioning, it was also used as a cinema screening room. Closed for over 20 years, it finally regained its former glory on 13 December 2004.
The façade, in Art Nouveau style, is divided into seven modules, each characterized by two openings which make up the doors and windows of the building, except for the two external modules. These in fact in the lower part represent the spaces dedicated to the posters, in the upper part there are two niches that must have contained the statues of Giuseppe Verdi and Vincenzo Bellini, never inserted. On the façade above the terminal stands a sculptural group, the work of the Catania master Mario Moschetti, representing the soul of the Theater in allegorical form: Tragedy, Music and Comedy.
The plan is obtained from two rectangles of very significant proportion. The smaller rectangle intersects the larger one in the front, it houses the vestibule, the entrance, and is characterized by eight openings, five external and three internal. In the largest rectangle are the stalls, the stage set and related services.
The room refers to the nineteenth-century theater, with an elliptical horseshoe plan surrounded by forty-four loggias arranged in three superimposed levels. The scenes and the Invoice were entrusted to Giuseppe Distefano and the Curtain by Giuseppe Rapisarda, artists from Catania. Distefano also enriched the arch of the stage and the compartments of the loggias with friezes and arabesques. Rapisarda's tarpaulin represented the scene of Timoleonte, who with his warriors goes to the Temple of Adrano to thank God for the victory over Icete.
The Bellini Theater in Adrano was the set of some scenes of "Divorzio all'Italiana"
