Teatro Massimo Bellini

In 1995, I attended a performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s Falstaff here. It was my first time to see an opera in an old European opera house. We had a box on the first tier up from the orchestra, near the far end of stage right, so our clearest view was of the other patrons directly opposite us. It would have been perfect, if it had been 1870 and our primary reason for being there was to spy on this or than contessa. However, for the purposes of actually watching the drama onstage, it required leaning far forward and craning one’s neck. Don’t get me wrong, I’d go back in a flash. It makes my head swim to think of the historic performances mounted there and of the panoply of celebrated singers who have given their benediction to the hall, which is itself named for “The Swan of Catania”: bel canto period composer Vincenzo Bellini.