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Teatro San Carlo Review
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Teatro San Carlo 
- Address: Via San Carlo 101-103, Toledo, Naples
- Phone: 081/7972331 box office; 081/7972412
- Fax: 081/400902
- www.teatrosancarlo.it
- Category: Arts/Performance Venues
- Location: Naples
Fodor's Review:
La Scala in Milan is the famous one, but San Carlo is more beautiful, and Naples is, after all, the most operatic of cities. Built in eight months and 10 days in 1737 by Angelo Carasale for Charles III of Bourbon -- and opened on the king's saint's name day -- it burned down in 1816 and was rebuilt, with its facade of five rustic arches in gray piperno surmounted by an elegant loggia, in a mere nine months. This time the architect was Antonio Niccolini, working under the impetus of Domenico Barbaja, the Milanese director appointed by Joachim Murat in 1810. Barbaja, San Carlo's most legendary director, started out as a waiter in a tavern and enriched himself through a talent for gambling. Obviously wanting to remain part of the new regime, he bet the king that he could have the theater open within nine months. More important, he also managed in the same year to convince Gioacchino Rossini to come to Naples as conductor and house composer; Stendhal hailed Ferdinand's wise retaining of Barbaja and his prompt sponsorship of the theater as a "coup d'état" for the deep and immediate bond it created between the ruler and his opera-loving populace. This was further cemented by the many operas composed for the house, including Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor and Rossini's La Donna del Lago.
In the theater, nearly 200 boxes are arranged on six levels, and the huge stage (12,000 square feet) permits productions with horses, camels, and elephants and even boasts a removable backdrop that can lift to reveal the Palazzo Reale Gardens. Above the rich red-and-gold auditorium is a breathy ceiling fresco, by Giuseppe Cammarano, suitably representing Apollo presenting poets to Athena. At many performances, however, all eyes strayed to the sumptuous royal box, which seats 15 and is topped by a gigantic gilded crown. Check the San Carlo Web site, the local press (Il Mattino, La Repubblica, Corriere della Sera), or the Qui Napoli for information on performances, or pick up the annual program at the ticket office and get ready for a great evening of opera. Performance standards are among the highest in Europe at the San Carlo -- even the great Enrico Caruso was hissed here -- although some locals really come to study the fashion show in the auditorium, not the Verdi on stage. If you can't catch a performance, try to take the 30-minute guided tour (EUR 5) to see the splendid theater -- as Stendhal wrote: "The first impression one gets is of being suddenly transported to the palace of an oriental emperor. There is nothing in Europe to compare with it, or even give the faintest idea of what it is like."
- Open: Guided tours daily 9-6, but not during rehearsals
- Metro: Dante (in construction: Piazza Municipio)
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