Teatro Massimo: general view
by BASILE, Ernesto, Photo
The huge Teatro Massimo in Palermo was designed by Giovanni Battista Basile (1825-1891), father of Ernesto Basile. He started the construction in 1874, but it was stopped for eight years, from 1882 until 1890. From 1891 until the completion of the project in 1897, Ernesto Basile was the supervising architect of the building.
The Teatro Massimo symbolized the ambitions of Palermo, then a provincial city lacking adequate facilities, to copy the kind of Modernist architecture built in the great cities of Europe, especially Paris. It has remained a symbol, and its stage, the largest in Europe after the Paris Opera, has been one of the least used.
The interior is decorated and painted by Rocco Lentini (1858-1943), Ettore de Maria-Bergler (1851-1938), Michele Cortegiani (1857-1928) and Luigi di Giovanni (1856-1938).