Giacomo Puccini Giglio Theatre
The Teatro del Giglio Giacomo, a longtime artistic and cultural hub for the city of Lucca, has been recognized as a Teatro di Tradizione (Traditional Theatre) since 1985. In 2024, the historic title of the Bourbon Lily was added to the tribute to the great Lucca composer Giacomo Puccini.
STREET ADDRESS: Lily Square, 13/15 Lucca
PHONE: 0583 465320
WEBSITE: teatrodelgigliogiacomopuccini.it
Its birth dates back more than three centuries, when the Council of the Republic of Lucca established by decree a public theatre that enjoyed intense artistic activity over the centuries.
The city's main theatre is an extraordinary and rare example of a public theatre that has operated in the same building almost continuously for over three centuries: built at the expense and by order of the Republic, it was inaugurated in 1675 and functioned regularly as a public theatre until the early nineteenth century, when significant restoration work became necessary.
In 1799, after the fall of the Republic of Lucca, the Teatro Pubblico (Public Theatre) went into crisis, with the Teatro Castiglioncelli on Via del Moro, a privately owned theatre, taking over. Without maintenance, the theatre fell into disrepair; a new one was needed; so architect Giovanni Lazzarini drew up the new project. Work began in 1817 and was completed in 1819. Maria Luisa of Bourbon (sovereign of Lucca) had the honor of inaugurating the new theatre and choosing its name. On September 22, 1819, the Teatro del Giglio became state property, and Marquis Antonio Mazzarosa was entrusted with its "care."
Throughout the 19th century, the Teatro del Giglio hosted the best companies on the Italian stage: concerts, dances, variety shows, and, above all, opera followed one another on the stage, and the most famous names of the time (the tenor Tacchinardi, Duprez, the soprano Maria Malibran, etc.) came to perform on its small stage. Giacomo Puccini He came to Lucca to supervise the staging of some of his operas. The theater preserves a bas-relief by the sculptor Francesco Petroni, inaugurated in 1911, on the occasion of the production of La fanciulla del West, which bears a dedication: "Lucca to Giacomo Puccini September 1911."
No changes were made, except for the lighting; in 1872, gas was installed, and in 1911, electric light appeared for the first time. Closed in 1917, during the Great War, and converted into a military warehouse, the Giglio reopened its doors in 1919 with three operas by Lucca composers Puccini, Catalani, and Luporini. From August 1819, the theater, under the name Teatro del Giglio, enjoyed its most glorious season, which lasted for at least thirty years, and offered the people of Lucca truly remarkable performances.
The theatre also hosts the company of Del Carretto Theatre with which the Teatro del Giglio has been co-producing world-famous shows for twenty years, such as Snow White, Romeo and Juliet, The Iliad, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Beauty and the Beast, The Odyssey, Pinocchio, and Hamlet.
Puccini itineraries
In the spring of 1878, while still a student at the G. Pacini Music Institute, Giacomo Puccini had the opportunity to perform at the Teatro del Giglio as a pianist accompanying a young emerging singer, demonstrating "rare ability".
Puccini returned to the Teatro del Giglio a few years later to present his operas—from Edgar to La fanciulla del west—with consistently brilliant, indeed mostly triumphant, results. Puccini "attended" the performances, that is, he followed the rehearsals to ensure the quality was as high as possible, and then attended the premiere and some subsequent performances, particularly the so-called "evenings of honor," during which the city showed him its affection, appreciation, and pride in having been his birthplace.
The dates of the Lucca debuts:
Edgar, September 5, 1891;
Manon Lescaut, September 3, 1893;
La bohème, September 5, 1896;
Tosca, September 3, 1900;
Madama Butterfly, September 8, 1907;
The Wild West, September 10, 1911.
Other performances of Puccini's operas were interspersed with the debuts and continued until 1924.
In 1923, the Mayor of Lucca established a Committee for the renovation of the Teatro del Giglio, chaired by Giacomo Puccini, who felt Lucca needed a theater "suited to modern needs" and could contribute his experience with the world's leading theaters. The Committee met several times, and various proposals were put forward, from expanding the theater to demolishing it, to building a new theater outside the city walls. Meetings continued even after Puccini's death, but to no avail.