Teatro Massimo
Teatro Massimo is one of the largest Italian theaters with 3200 seats and was built between 1875 and 1897. It was named after King Victor Emmanuel II. The theater is famous for its excellent acoustics.
Highlights
Basile was inspired by ancient Sicilian architecture and thus the Massimo Theater was built in a neoclassical style, including elements of Greek temples. The auditorium, designed in late Renaissance style in a classic horseshoe shape with seven boxes, has a seating capacity of 3,000 people. The sculptures of busts of the great composers for the theater were sculpted by the Italian sculptor Giusto Liva and his sons.
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For twenty-three years it was closed, as the building was considered insufficiently secure, and was seen as a sad symbol of Mafia mismanagement. Its reopening in 1998 was a sign of Palermo’s political and cultural renaissance, closely linked to the activities of Leoluca Orlando, elected mayor in 1993, and to a growing sense of civic responsibility among the locals.
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Interesting fact
The final scenes of The Godfather 3 were filmed at the Massimo Theater.
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