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| 2958 Palermo - Teatro Massimo |
Posted on 24.01.2017, 21.02.2017
The Teatro Massimo Vittorio Emanuele is an opera house and opera company located on the Piazza Verdi in Palermo, dedicated to King Victor Emanuel II. Built between 1874 and 1897, it is the biggest in Italy, and one of the largest of Europe (the third after the Opéra National de Paris and the K. K. Hof-Opernhaus in Vienna), renowned for its perfect acoustics. Realized in the late-Renaissance style, the auditorium was planned for
3,000 people, but, in its current format, it seats 1,350, with 7 tiers
of boxes rising up around an inclined stage, and shaped in the typical
horseshoe style. |
| 2935 Palermo - Interior view of the Teatro Massimo |
For many years there had been talk of building a big new theatre in Palermo, worthy of the second biggest city in southern Italy (after Naples) and designed to promote the image of the city following the unification of Italy in 1861. The opera house was designed and overseen by the Italian architect Giovan Battista Filippo Basile, well known in Sicily. Following his death in 1891, construction was then overseen by his son, Architect Ernesto Basile. The Rutelli and Machì Company, represented by Giovanni Rutelli and Alberto Machì, was contracted for the main construction.
Basile was inspired by ancient and classical Sicilian architecture and, thus, the exterior was designed in the high neoclassical style incorporating elements of the Greek temples at Selinunte and Agrigento. Some of the external decoration and one of the two very large bronze statues of lions sitting next to the theatre's monumental stairway entrance were created by Giovanni Rutelli's son, sculptor artist Sir Mario Rutelli. Busts of famous composers were carved for the theatre by the Italian sculptor, Giusto Liva (born in Montebelluna, Treviso in 1847) and several of his sons.
About the stamps
On the postcard 2935
The stamp is part of the series Italian Squares, about which I wrote here.
On the postcard 2958
On the postcard is a GPS stamp (adhesive, pre-paid), which has value only if applied on tourist postcards. It enables optimizing the dispatch service through mail stream UPU members, used by Globe Postal Service. Globe Postal Service (GPS) is an Italian private postal operator, leader in the offer of private postal services dedicated to the tourist (and not only them). So, the postcards franked with GPS stamps can be posted only into GPS mailboxes that are available in every GPS points of sale. All the GPS stamps are sold in an envelope with an inner map (representing the visited city) on which the tourist can identify all the GPS shops where he can buy or mail his postcards. GPS service is available in the main Italian tourist regions. The stamp GPS turns its attention to the excellence of Italian, the images they portray the views of the most beautiful and important tourist sites Italians.
• Cefalù - It's on the postcard 2935
• The Sicily's map - It's on the postcard 2964
• Trinacria - It's on the postcard 2981
• Turin - It's on the postcard 3416
References
Teatro Massimo - Wikipedia
Sender 2935, 2958: Ana
2935: Sent from Palermo (Sicily / Italy), on 27.12.2016
2958: Sent from Palermo (Sicily / Italy), on 21.12.2016
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