The closing of the project for the 400th anniversary of the Goldoni Theatre at the Italian Cultural Institute in London

The celebrations of the fourth centenary of the Goldoni Theater in Venice, the oldest of the Italian theaters still in activity, promoted by the Fondazione Teatro Stabile del Veneto - Teatro Nazionale, have concluded at the Italian Cultural Institute in London.

Goldoni 400. Venetian culture and economy was the title of the evening which, starting from the extraordinary and very long history of the theatre, presented the Venetian productive excellences to economic and cultural operators in the British capital, from creative and cultural enterprises to tourism and the economic relations with the United Kingdom. After the greeting from Francesco Bongarrà, director of the Italian Cultural Institute in London, representatives of the Chambers of Commerce of Padua, Venice Rovigo and Treviso – Belluno spoke | Dolomiti, of Confindustria Veneto Est, of Confcommercio Veneto and of the Association for the Heritage of the Prosecco Hills of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene.

The Venetian writer Andrea Molesini and Daniele D'Anza, curator of the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, were among the protagonists of the evening. D'Anza presented to the public the deed of the transfer of ownership of the theatre, a document kept at the House of Carlo Goldoni dated 3 January 1622 in which the fate of what will be "a store over the theater for performing comedies" is already clear. .

To close the event, the lecture show Il Mestier Comico - Journey into the world of masks with Michele Modesto Casarin, Manuela Massimi and Matteo Campagnol, organized by the Teatro Stabile del Veneto.

“We were pleased to host the closing of the three-year program of “Goldoni 400” at the Institute of Culture in London, the special project spread between Venice and the Mainland promoted by the Teatro Stabile del Veneto together with the Veneto Region and the Municipality of Venice with a balance of fifty-two shows in thirty-five squares in all seven provinces of the region for a total of over twenty thousand spectators", said Bongarrà, underlining how the project created to celebrate the 400 years of the Goldoni Theater was "an unrepeatable opportunity to reflect on the relationship between Veneto and the theatre, between the territories and its multiple artistic vocations, along a path that spans four centuries and which finds its roots in the glorious 'State of land and sea'.

“The celebrations for the four hundredth anniversary of Goldoni were an extraordinary organizational effort that we made with enthusiasm, feeling it was a privilege to be able to work for the oldest active theater in Italy – declared Giampiero Beltotto –. A commitment that we could not have completed without the trust and support of our members. Once again I thank all those who followed us in London, but also the Veneto Region and the Municipality of Venice who accompanied us during this three-year period of celebrations. Thanks also to the Venetian Civic Museums who made the archives of Carlo Goldoni's House available to us, thus allowing us to rediscover the founding act of our theatre, that document from which it all began".

The balance sheet of the three-year “Goldoni 400” project

Thus ends in London the three-year program of “Goldoni 400”, the special project spread between Venice and the Mainland promoted by the Teatro Stabile del Veneto together with the Veneto Region and the Municipality of Venice with a balance of fifty-two shows in thirty-five squares of all and seven provinces in the region for a total of over twenty thousand spectators.

Thanks to the contribution of the Municipality of Venice, the Veneto Region and the Ministry of Culture, the TSV presented a program full of proposals that feed on the past, but at the same time find in the present, in contemporary authors, other looks and points of view capable of photographing our time. An extraordinary organizational effort with which the Stabile del Veneto not only created productions for large stages, but thanks to the collaboration with the regional multidisciplinary circuit Arteven it also gave life to the Teatro Viaggiante project, a mobile theater with which an attempt was made to revive the ancient tradition of the Tespi floats is contemporary and eco-sustainable, which physically brought a reproduction of the entrance to the Goldoni Theater to 14 municipalities in all 7 provinces of Veneto with as many shows staged by local companies selected through a public tender. The program also involved the Metropolitan City of Venice, identifying in addition to the historic buildings such as Palazzo Grimani and the Casa dei Tre Oci and the M9 Museum, also two new locations, in terms of environmental context and type of language, such as the Arterminal of the Port of Venice which welcomed The Render by the New York company Big Art Group, and the Arsenale Tower inside which Alonso an immersive project was created thanks to the use of virtual reality technology. A schedule full of shows, but also of collateral events including workshops for the little ones, conversations and workshops, and which reached its peak last September 30th with the evening of reopening to the public of the Goldoni Theatre, which had been closed for a few months for allow the carrying out of extraordinary maintenance interventions by the Municipality of Venice which led to the safety of the theater and the restyling of the stalls.

An extraordinary effort, therefore, which led to the start of the recovery of the Goldoni Theater and which the TSV carried out with enthusiasm with the aim of contributing to the national and international relaunch of the oldest theater in Italy still in operation.

First signs of a recovery also confirmed by the data for the current season, which despite the demographic decline seen in the city, recorded an increase in season ticket holders, 767 compared to 729 in the 2022/2023 season, and a total number of attendances equal to 30,000 spectators. Around 20% of the performances reached sold out, a percentage that confirms the pre-pandemic numbers.

Secondary school students also returned to Goldoni, with 900 of them attending the programming dedicated to the schools, as well as university students attracted by the ESU theater fares.

A theater always in activity, thanks also to the presence of some lessons of the two-year period of the Carlo Goldoni Theater Academy, to the guided tours which brought over 400 visitors, to the theater workshops for all ages, but also to collateral activities such as the exhibition “Back to art” which presents a tapestry created by the artist Olimpia Biasi and created in collaboration with McArthur Glen Noventa of Piave Designer Outlet which is still ongoing.

Furthermore, the international vocation of the Goldoni is increasingly affirmed, which for the third consecutive year hosted the Asteroide Amor festival, promoted by the Teatro Stabile del Veneto in collaboration with the Cà Foscari University, Iuav and the Venice Foundation, hosting companies from all over the world and producing the shows of Irina Brook and Big Art Group, but above all it is preparing to open its doors to the international public that lives in the city: from 18 July to 13 October, for a total of 52 performances, in fact, it will be staged Titize. A Venetian Dream, an acrobatic theater show co-produced by TSV with the Finzi Pasca Company, which after the Venetian summer will tour Italy and Europe. A project conceived starting from the Venetian tradition of commedia dell'arte and prose theater to stage a show suitable for an intergenerational audience thanks also to the use of the universal language of clowning, dance, music and acrobatic theatre.