The great Teatro Comunale of Modena was projected by Francesco Vandelli and built in 1842, under the Dukedom of Francesco IV.
The harmonious facade in Corso Canal Grande°° is characterized by a portico with four marble columns at the main entrance and by the reliefs by Luigi Righi. Over it, a plaque commemorates the foundation.
In the interior, the foyer, the main room and all the other rooms are sumptuously decorated. In the hall, two busts of the Modenese Orazio Vecchi (musician of the XVI century whom the Conservatoire is dedicated to) and Luigi Riccoboni (playwright of the early XVIII century). The house is elliptical with four tiers of boxes and gallery. Interesting is the ducal box, surmounted by the Estense eagle, the ceiling, frescoed by Ferdinando Manzini (1869) and the two safety curtains painted by Adeodato Malatesta and Luigi Manzini.
After his death in 2007, the theatre was named after Luciano Pavarotti.
On the right side of the edifice, in front of the Conservatoire, a bust of Carlo Goldoni commemorates that his parents’ house stood there. Even if the world famous comedy writer is known as Venetian, spending most of his life there, he loved to underline his Modenese origins.
[Images from 10 to 14 and from 16 to 23 by Rolando Paolo Guerzoni, courtesy of Fondazione Teatro Comunale di Modena]
