Teatro Massimo Bellini, Catania, Italy

The Teatro Massimo Bellini is an opera house in Catania. Named after the local-born composer Vincenzo Bellini, it was inaugurated in 1890 with a performance of the composer's masterwork, Norma.

The exterior of the house matches the distinctive Sicilian Baroque style of the neighboring buildings of the late 17th Century. Its marble foyer, the “Ridotto”, is ornate and stuccoed, and a statue of Bellini is located between the central arches. The beautiful red-plush interior includes the main floor seating and four tiers of boxes. Surrounding them, on the upper level, are unusual arched arcades. The painted ceiling by Ernesto Bellandi depicts scenes from four of Bellini's most well-known operas.

Throughout its history, the opera house has performed almost all of Bellini's work. From its beginnings, a wide variety of operas have been performed by some highly renowned singers. In 1951, to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of Bellini, Maria Callas sang Norma, repeating her success in 1952 and 1953.

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User Reviews

Ивайло Стоянов (12 months ago)
Greath theatre with beautiful atmosphere and amazing acoustic. From 9:00 am to 12:00 am there is a guide tour for 8 euro. Recommend for visitors of Catania.

Paix SurTerre (14 months ago)
Fabulous acoustics, excellent performance by the philharmonic symphony orchestra and absolutely stunning opera house - well worth visiting - Maestro Salvatore Percacciolo presented an excellent program.

Jovanaa Mladenovic (14 months ago)
The guide (the gilr with alergy :) ) is excellent, she is sooo cute, she had all our attention and her English is fantastic, well done! Teatro is marvelous, you must see it! P.s. note to guides, let us 5-6 minuts to take a pictures to ourselfs when you finish. :)

carolyn taylor (15 months ago)
Absolutely beautiful architecture. The opera was fantastic. Staff at ticket office were wonderful.

Milan Stosic (2 years ago)
My first visit to a teatro big as this one and I’m fascinated. We tool a guided tour (6.5 eur/person) and the guideance was bilingual (Italian and English). I definitelly want to experience an opera in this place.

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There is not much left of the original interior. The font is made of local red marble in the 13th century. The pulpit was made in Lübeck in 1684. There are 400 graves under the church floor.

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