The Malibran Theater is a Venetian theater. It is known above all for its importance in the operatic field which it had between the 17th and 18th centuries, when it bore the name of Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo.
It was designed by Tommaso Bezzi at the behest of the brothers
Vincenzo and Giovanni Carlo Grimani; it was built in place of the
residence of the well-known traveler Marco Polo, destroyed and
demolished following a violent fire that occurred in 1597 and was
inaugurated during the carnival of 1678 with the Vespasiano of Carlo
Pallavicino. It immediately became the main, most luxurious and most
extravagant Venetian stage. Sumptuous operas were staged and high-level
singers performed, such as Margherita Durastanti, who was the prima
donna between 1709 and 1712. During its golden age, great composers were
active at this theater, such as Carlo Francesco Pollarolo, Alessandro
Scarlatti and George Frideric Handel.
From the 1730s a slow and
inexorable decline began for the San Giovanni Grisostomo, however it
managed to keep up with all the Venetian theaters until the
mid-eighteenth century. In 1737, when Carlo Goldoni was placed in charge
of the Venetian stage, prose works also began to be performed (among
these many were comedies by him). Subsequently, due to its considerable
size, the Grimani family decided in 1755 to open a smaller theater, the
San Benedetto. The opening of this new stage brought about the end of
the hegemony of the San Giovanni which, once passed into the background,
saw the operatic repertoire represented there gradually decrease.
Following the French occupation of Venice it was among the few
Venetian theaters that did not have to be closed. In 1819 it was sold to
the family of Giovanni Gallo, who in 1834 had it restored, renaming it
for the first time Teatro Emeronittio (as it is open both day and night)
and then a second time, in 1835, Teatro Malibran, as a sign of gratitude
to Maria Malibran, the great singer who on April 8 of that year, in that
theater, had performed La sonnambula, renouncing her fee.
In
1849, with the return of the Austrians to Venice after the famous
resistance of the lagoon city which lasted almost a year, all the major
theaters in the Veneto closed in protest, except the Malibran.
After changing hands again in 1886, it was reopened in 1913, but after
an opera season it was closed again due to safety concerns. It was
reopened for the umpteenth time in 1919 and throughout most of the first
half of the century it was always active in the representation of
operas, operettas, as well as cinematographic shows. In 1992 the
Municipality of Venice bought the theater and, after restoring and
expanding it, put it back into operation. Following the arson which
destroyed the Teatro La Fenice in 1996, the orchestra of the latter
stage moved provisionally to the Malibran, where various shows were
staged which re-evaluated the old Venetian theatre, which recently
became the second venue of the Fenice (after the reopening of 2001).
Remarkably rich in elegant decorations, it had five orders of thirty
boxes and a vast empty stalls, and its plan distributed throughout the
length presented a grandiose architectural structure.
Vespasian by Carlo Pallavicino, 1678
Nero by Carlo Pallavicino,
1679
The Abduction of the Sabine Women by Pietro Simone Agostini,
1680 with Giovanni Francesco Grossi
Antiochus the Great by Giovanni
Legrenzi, 1681
Croesus by Giovanni Legrenzi, 1681
Flavius Cunibert
by Gian Domenico Partenio, 1681
Charles King of Italy by Carlo
Pallavicino, 1682
Flavius Cunibert by Domenico Gabrielli, 1682
The
infant king by Carlo Pallavicino, 1683
Licinius emperor of Carlo
Pallavicino, 1683
Ricimer king of the Vandals by Carlo Pallavicino,
1684
Massimo Puppieno by Carlo Pallavicino, 1685
Penelope the
Chaste by Carlo Pallavicino, 1685
Love in Love by Carlo Pallavicino,
1686
Delusional Dido by Carlo Pallavicino, 1686
The corsair
amazone, or L'Alvida queen of the Goths, 1686
Elmir king of Corinth
by Carlo Pallavicino, 1686
The Jerusalem Delivered by Carlo
Pallavicino, 1687
Charles the Great by Domenico Gabrielli, 1688
Horace by G. F. Tosi, 1688
Peace between Ptolemy and Seleucus by
Carlo Francesco Pollarolo, 1691
Honorius in Rome by Carlo Francesco
Pollarolo, 1692
The Jewish Sultan by Carlo Francesco Pollarolo, 1692
The Strength of Virtue by Carlo Francesco Pollarolo, 1693
Otto by
Carlo Francesco Pollarolo, 1694
Irene by Carlo Francesco Pollarolo,
1694
The Shepherd of Anfriso by Carlo Francesco Pollarolo, 1695
The Rosimonda by Carlo Francesco Pollarolo, 1695
Hercules in Heaven
by Carlo Francesco Pollarolo, 1696
Love and duty by Carlo Francesco
Pollarolo, 1696
Marzio Coriolano by Carlo Francesco Pollarolo, 1698
The Faramondo by Carlo Francesco Pollarolo, 1698
The repudiation of
Octavia by Carlo Francesco Pollarolo, 1699
Lucio Vero by Carlo
Francesco Pollarolo, 1699
Color makes the queen by Carlo Francesco
Pollarolo, 1700
The common delirium for the inconstancy of the
geniuses of Carlo Francesco Pollarolo, 1700
Cato Uticenze by Carlo
Francesco Pollarolo, 1701
Love and Hate by Carlo Francesco Pollarolo,
1702
Wenceslas by Carlo Francesco Pollarolo, 1703
Fortune for the
dowry of Carlo Francesco Pollarolo, 1704
The Day of Night by Carlo
Francesco Pollarolo, 1704
The Daphnis by Carlo Francesco Pollarolo,
1705
Philip, King of Greece by Carlo Francesco Pollarolo, 1706
Flavio Bertarido, king of the Lombards by Carlo Francesco Pollarolo,
1706
The Wild Hero by Antonio Caldara, 1707
Alessandro in Susa by
Luigi Mancia, 1708
Sofonisba by Antonio Caldara, 1708
The Generous
Winner by Antonio Lotti, 1709
Agrippina by Georg Friedrich Handel,
1709
He loves more who thinks less by Antonio Lotti, 1709
The
command not understood and obeyed by Antonio Lotti, 1710
Isacio
tyranno by Antonio Lotti, 1710
The treacherous betrayal of himself by
Antonio Lotti, 1711
The Power of Blood, by Antonio Lotti, 1711
Infidelity punished by Antonio Lotti, 1711
Publius Cornelius Scipio
by Carlo Francesco Pollarolo, 1712
Infidelity punished by Carlo
Francesco Pollarolo, 1712
Spurious posthumous by Carlo Francesco
Pollarolo, 1712
Porsena by Antonio Lotti, 1713
Irene augusta by
Antonio Lotti, 1713
Semiramide by Carlo Francesco Pollarolo, 1714
The Germanic by Carlo Francesco Pollarolo, 1716
Suberb Seal by
Antonio Lotti, 1716
Ariodante by Carlo Francesco Pollarolo, 1716
Alessandro Severo by Antonio Lotti, 1717
Eumene by Tomaso Albinoni,
1717
Astianatte by Antonio Maria Bononcini, 1718
Iphigenia in
Tauride by Giuseppe Maria Orlandini, 1719
Leucippus and Theonoe by
Antonio Pollarolo, 1719
Paris by Giuseppe Maria Orlandini, 1720
The Lamano by Michelangelo Gasparini, 1720
Theodoric by Giovanni
Porta, 1720
Nero by Giuseppe Maria Orlandini, 1721
Lucio Papirio
dictator of Antonio Pollarolo, 1721
Plautilla by Antonio Pollarolo,
1721
Giulio Flavio Crispo by Giovanni Maria Capelli, 1722
Romulus
and Tatius by Carlo Luigi Pietragrua, 1722
Wenceslas by Giovanni
Maria Capelli, Antonio Pollarolo and Giacomo Porta, 1722
Mithridates,
King of Pontus Conquering Himself by Giovanni Maria Capelli, 1723
The
Misunderstandings of Love and Innocence by Francesco Gasparini, 1723
Hypermester of Geminiano Giacomelli, 1724
The Triumph of Virtue by
Francesco Brusa, 1724
The Most Faithful Among Friends by Michelangelo
Gasparini, 1724
Berenice by Giuseppe Maria Orlandini, 1725
Syphax
by Nicola Porpora, 1725
The Triumph of Flavio Olibrio by Giacomo
Porta, 1726
Meride and Selinunte by Nicola Porpora, 1727
Aldiso by
Giacomo Porta, 1727
Ariadne and Theseus by Nicola Porpora, 1727
Argene by Leonardo Leo, 1728
Ezio by Nicola Porpora, 1728
Cato in
Utica by Leonardo Leo, 1729
Recognized Semiramide by Nicola Porpora,
1729
The Abandonment of Armida by Antonio Pollarolo, 1729
Honorius
by Francesco Ciampi, 1729
Artaxerxes by Johann Adolf Hasse, 1730
Hydaspes by Carlo Broschi, 1730
Maximian by Giuseppe Maria Orlandini,
1731
Demetrius by Johann Adolf Hasse, 1732
The Issipile by Giacomo
Porta, 1732
Epaminondas by Geminiano Giacomelli, 1732
Hadrian in
Syria by Geminiano Giacomelli, 1733
Merope by Geminiano Giacomelli,
1734
The Mercy of Titus by Leonardo Leo, 1735
Rosbale by Nicola
Porpora, 1737
Demophoon by Gaetano Latilla, 1738
Alessandro Severo
by Andrea Bernasconi, 1738
Viriate by Johann Adolf Hasse, 1739
Otto by Gennaro D'Alessandro, 1740
Oronte re de' Scyti by Baldassarre
Galuppi, 1740
Dido Abandoned by Andrea Bernasconi, 1741
Tigranes
by Giuseppe Arena, 1741
Merope by Niccolo Jommelli, 1741
Statira
by Nicola Porpora, 1742
The Bajazet by Andrea Bernasconi, 1742
Semiramis by Niccolò Jommelli, 1742
The nymph Apollo by Andrea
Bernasconi, 1743
Arsace by Baldassarre Galuppi, 1743
Siroe king of
Persia by Gennaro Manna, 1743
Meride and Selinunte by Pietro
Chiarini, 1743-4
Hypermester by Christoph Willibald Gluck, 1744
Recognized Semiramis by Johann Adolf Hasse, 1744
Antigonus by Andrea
Bernasconi, 1745
Sophonisba by Niccolo Jommelli, 1745
Artaxerxes
by Girolamo Abosa, 1746
Tito Manlio (2nd version) by Niccolò
Jommelli, 1746
Everges by Lorenzo Gibelli, 1748
Recognized Ciro
(2nd version) by Niccolò Jommelli, 1749
Siroe by Gioacchino Cocchi,
1750
Artaxerxes by Antonio Gaetano Pampani, 1750
Abandoned Dido by
Gennaro Manna, 1751
The Wedding of Paris by Baldassarre Galuppi, 1756
Cajo Mario by Baldassarre Galuppi, 1764
Auspicious Night by
Ferdinando Bertoni, 1764
Achilles on Skyros by Florian Leopold
Gassmann, 1766
The pretended madman for love by Michele Mortellari,
1779
The arrival of the burchiello from Padua to Venice by Luigi
Caruso, 1780
The jealous corrected by Francesco Gnecco, 1803
The
fake brother of Francesco Gnecco, 1803
The first proof of the opera
Gli Orazi e Curiazi by Francesco Gnecco, 1803
Irene and Fliandro by
Luigi Antonio Calegari, 1808
Maruzza by Pietro Floridia, 1894