Apollo (Teatro Apollo, Rome)

Overview

In the diary «l'Apollo» is the Teatro Apollo, Rome's largest opera house in the 1870s. It stood on the left bank of the Tiber at Tor di Nona, near the Ponte Sant'Angelo, on the site of the Teatro Tordinona founded in 1670 under Queen Christina of Sweden; rebuilt in 1795 as the Apollo, it saw the premieres of Verdi's Il trovatore and Un ballo in maschera. It was demolished in 1888 (or September 1889) when the Tiber embankments were built; a fountain of 1925 by Cesare Bazzani on the Lungotevere Tor di Nona marks the site (en.wikipedia «Tor di Nona», «Lungotevere Tor di Nona»; Turismo Roma, «Fontana del Teatro Apollo»).

Relevance to Marie

• Carnival 1876: the family's evenings at the Apollo with Pietro Antonelli and the young men of the Caccia-Club in the stage box (barcaccia): «A douze [heures] nous allons à l'Apollo, dans une loge en bas» (054/1876-02-25); «je suis allé chaque soir à l'Apollo» (Antonelli, 054/1876-02-28); «Petit-Paul» introduced himself to Marie there (059/1876-05-05).
• 23 April 1876: back from Naples, Marie hears «Roméo et Juliette», «la dernière soirée musicale de l'Apollo», with the subscriptions suspended and the barcaccia let to strangers (059.0193, 059.0196). The opera was Filippo Marchetti's «Romeo e Giulietta», whose libretto was printed for the Apollo's Lent season of 1876 (archive.org «romeoegiuliettad00marc»).
• 27 December 1876: Verdi's Aida (068/1876-12-27); 7 February 1877: the masked ball (veglione) at the Apollo (068/1877-02-08).

References in Diary

• First mentioned: 1876-02-12 (054)
• Key entries: 1876-02-25, 1876-02-28 (054); 1876-04-23, 1876-05-05 (059); 1876-12-27, 1877-02-08 (068)

Related

• Teatro Valle, Rome's other theatre in the diary
• Veglione