The First Odessa City Theatre

The building for the first Odessa City Theatre was constructed upon the design project of an Italian architect Francesco FRAPPOLLI with some changes made by a French architect Thomas de THOMON, who designed many buildings in St Petersburg, the capital of Russian Empire. The grand opening night took place on the 10th of February 1810. A snow-white building was facing the port and resembled an ancient Greek temple. The auditorium numbered 800 seats (at that time Odessa had 12.5 thousand people). Three tiers had 44 seats behind which there was some semicircular space where about 700 people could enjoy the performance standing as in Italian old theatres.

An opera in one act “ New Family “ by Sergey VYAZMITINOV and a vaudeville “ Mourning or Consoled Widow ” by Jacob KNYAZHIN were on stage on the day when the City Theater was first opened. They were staged by the Porphyry Fortunatov’s Drama Company staged the shows; Prophyry FORTUNATOV was a Russian actor and entrepreneur. On signing the contract with the Russian Prince A. Shakhovsky’s Drama Company in 1811 regular shows started in the theatre. Prince Alexander SHAKHOVSKY was a playwright, a member of the Russian Literature Academy and a literary society “ Conversations between Fans ”. The repertoire had tragedies, vaudevilles and comic operas.

However, 11 years later Russian companies stopped performing in the City Theatre and Italian opera commenced its dominance. Some Italian entrepreneurs, such as Giuseppe MONTOVANNI, Josef ZAMBONNI and Guillermo BUANAVOLIO and others, obtained monopoly on productions in the City Theatre.

The word ‘opera’ appeared in the name of the theatre later, in the 20th century as at first the theater was called simply the City Theatre. Its stage saw performances of the famous opera singers, Imperial and Royal theatrical companies. Drama and comedies also frequented the stage. The playbills were full of famous actors and playwrights’ names. Ballet divertissements in operas and ballet performances entered the theatre repertoire a bit later.

The opera repertoire of the first City Theatre included works by Gioachino ROSSINI, Vincenzo BELLINI, Domenico CIMAROSA, Gaetano DONIZETTI, and Giuseppe VERDI. The Odessa audience applauded to Ekaterina AMATI, Arrigo and Angelica CATALANI, Giuseppe MARINI, Ekaterina PATTI-BARILLA, Josefina and Teresina BRAMBILLA, Ponti del ARMI, Alde BIANCA.

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