Giovan Battista Basile designed what's often called Europe's third-largest opera house, after Paris and Vienna, to crown Palermo's belle epoque ambitions, and construction dragged on for 22 years before it opened in 1897, a saga so contentious that Basile died midway and his son Ernesto finished the job.
The auditorium's ring of tiered boxes seats nearly 1,400 and was engineered for an acoustic clarity still praised by visiting singers and conductors today. Its grand staircase, framed by two bronze lion fountains, became instantly recognizable worldwide after Francis Ford Coppola filmed the closing opera-house scene of The Godfather Part III on its steps. The theater then closed for 23 years of restoration starting in 1974 and didn't reopen until 1997, a delay Sicilians still joke about.
Sources and citations (2)
- City of PalermoTeatro Massimo Vittorio EmanuelePlace overview and stated areaRead source
- Fondazione Teatro MassimoStoriaCompetition and laying-of-first-stone chronologyRead source
