The construction site of the new theatre (2017-2021)

The Fondazione Teatro Donizetti has enabled Università degli Studi di Bergamo and Politecnico di Milano to document, with new research, the relationship between the City of Bergamo and its most emblematic public building. This journey was undertaken concurrently with the restoration and recovery works on the Theatre named after the Bergamo composer Gaetano Donizetti. The specific intention of this book is to witness how the history of this architectural complex, both majestic and fragile, has been shaped by the enduring presence of a construction site that, in many aspects, seems endless. The book analyzes the events that have accompanied the evolution of the city’s society and culture, documenting the continuous interplay between the theatre and urban scenes. Over the past two centuries, the Donizetti Theatre’s passage through recurring moments of crisis serves as a formidable lesson, which is worth returning to after the tragedies of the pandemic and the celebrations for Bergamo/Brescia, the Italian capital of culture in 2023. The monograph's third act, articulated like a theatrical work, is dedicated to the whole history of the theatre, which was discovered thanks to the work of the most recent restoration campaign. The contribution highlights the theatre interpreted as an archaeological site, where ethnographical, artistic, architectural, and theatrical events intertwined.