Caio Melisso Theatre

The Caio Melisso is the most ancient Italian theatre of the city of Spoleto, and, until the construction of the other opera house of the city, the nineteenth-century Teatro Nuovo, played the role of the main stage of the city.the place began to be interested by the theatrical representations of Spoleto when there was set up a "stanzone for public comedies" already mentioned in 1664. This environment, in 1668, took the name of "Noble Theatre", one of the oldest Italian theatres with boxes. Originally it had a wooden structure and in 1751 it was enriched with pictorial decorations, curtains and scenes, which gave it a very fine appearance. After 1819, because of the theft of the eighteenth-century decorations made by unknown Florentine restorers, the appearance of the theater was considerably lower quality and the people of Spoleto expressed the desire to have a larger and richer, so that some, in 1853, tried to set fire to it.The construction of the New Theatre, completed in 1864, sanctioned the decline of the "Noble", which, however, after only ten years was renewed by the will of the City. The project was entrusted to the architect Giovanni Montiroli from Spoleto and in 1880 the theatre was reopened with the new name of Caio Melisso, the Spoleto librarian of the Emperor Augustus, writer, playwright and grammarian. Today the hall has a horseshoe plan, three tiers of boxes and a gallery; the ceiling is decorated with paintings depicting Apollo and the Muses, while the curtain with the Glory of Caius Melissus, both works by Domenico Bruschi. The theatre has a capacity of three hundred seats and is considered one of the most elegant in Italy; moreover, it has always hosted important shows of the Festival dei Due Mondi.