With a capacity of 1358 seats and a size of 7700 square meters, the Teatro Massimo Vittorio Emanuele in Palermo is the largest opera house in Italy , and one of the largest in Europe , third in order of architectural size after the Opéra National of Paris and the Staatsoper of Vienna.
Representative rooms, halls, galleries and monumental stairs surround the actual theater, forming an architectural complex of grandiose proportions. The theater was built in 1875 by the Greek-Roman style project of the architect Gionvan Battista Filippo Basile and completed in 1891 by his son Ernesto Basile.
An important example of neoclassical architecture , the Politeama Theater was born in 1867.
The theater has a large entrance in the form of a monumental triumphal arch at whose peak stands the bronze Quadriga by Mario Rutelli, representing the "Triumph of Apollo and Euterpe", flanked by a pair of bronze horses and knights modeled by Benedetto Civiletti representing the Olympic Games.
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The author of the current project of the "Al Massimo" Theater is Giovan Battista Santangelo (1889-1966), an engineer trained at the school of Ernesto Basile.
The Bulding of "Al Massimo" Theater is an admirable reinforced concrete structure that clearly shows how much the architect had gained a positive result from the theoretical and practical experience that had taken place in Europe in previous decades.
He had to look at show buildings and in particular that famous Théatre des Champs Elysée (1910 -1911) of Paris that Perret had built with reinforced concrete structures. Technique that was especially suited to the construction of large covered spaces and in which the experience of architects such as Guimard and Horta came together.
