Beyond the Renaissance in Florence - The Opera di Firenze and the Maggio Musicale

The New Opera Theater has replaced the old Municipal Theater, the work of the engineer Telemaco Bonaiuti, which dated back to 1862. The old building was no longer considered to be up with the times, especially from a technical and safety point of view and was no longer able to host important and prestigious artistic events.
Here is hosted the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, an important annual festival that includes operas, ballets and prose performances. It is held from April to June since 1933 and has its origins in Calendimaggio, the feast of Spring and Joy for the reborn nature, an event celebrated with dances and songs since very remote times.

The theater, inaugurated in 2011 and designed by architect Paolo Desideri, was built “on the border between stone Florence and green Florence”, along the ring boulevards, right at the edge of the Cascine Park, the largest in the city.
The area was previously occupied by the Florence Railway Workshops and the old Leopolda Station, the first one built in Florence in 1848, for the Florence-Livorno railway line. It was called Leopolda in honor of the Grand Duke Leopold II of Habsburg-Lorraine who promoted its construction. The Officine (railway workshops) have been moved and the old disused station has become a well-known center for meetings, congresses, events and manifestations of all kinds.

The complex includes a large tree-lined access garden, open to the public throughout the day. The interior consists of two halls: a Great Hall for opera with 1800 seats and a Small Hall for simphony concerts with 1000 seats. Moreover, on the roof of the Great Hall, there is an outdoor cavea, an open-air auditorium with 2600 seats.  A hanging garden has been placed on the roof over the Small Hall.

The entrance facade is of white marble, with large windows, the same kind of materials used in the Renaissance for the facades of churches. Even the coatings of the roof reproduce the greenish white color and the wavy ribs of the marbles used for the Florentine Baptistery.
The Torre di Scena (Fly Tower), in strong contrast with the white-marble of the other structures, is covered with glazed iridescent terracotta tiles. When the interior is illuminated at night, the overall effect is very suuggestive.

Florence, Piazza Vittorio Gui, along Viale Fratelli Rosselli.