Teatro Olimpico Historical Timeline

Origins

The Accademia Olimpica, a learned society of Vicenza's gentry, commissioned a permanent theatre in 1580 for performing classical drama. Palladio, a founding member, designed it as a Roman theatre reconstructed indoors -- there was no surviving model to copy, so he built from Vitruvius and from the ruins he had measured in Rome.

Turning points

Palladio died within months of the start. His son Silla oversaw the shell, and Vincenzo Scamozzi was brought in to complete it, designing the stage set for the inaugural production.

Influential people

The theatre opened on 3 March 1585 with Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, in a Vicentine translation, with music written for the occasion. Scamozzi's scenery was built for that single production and was meant to be temporary.

Cultural evolution

It never came down. What was intended as one show's scenery became the permanent fabric of the building, and has survived more than four centuries of a material -- wood and plaster -- with no business lasting that long.

Present-day significance

The theatre still stages a short annual season, deliberately limited: performances are restricted in number and staging to protect the interior. It has been part of Vicenza's UNESCO World Heritage inscription since 1994.