The Equestrian Circus, a category of “specialised buildings”

Under the name of Royal Hippodrome Vittorio Emanuele II, in 1856 the above structure was built outside the old baroque Turin, attached to the fortified town walls and absorbing part of the area from which a massive block of royal property emerges – this block incorporated the Teatro Regio, the State Archives and the Academy of Artillery and Engineers. The building nearby held the Royal Mint, the Royal Riding School of Carlo Emanuele II (renamed “Equestrian Centre”) and the Royal Palace stables.

The closeness of these buildings explains the origins of Teatro Vittorio as “fixed-circus” belonging to the Crown and dedicated to equestrian art both in its form as physical exercise and as a public performance.

Typical XIX century characteristics of the “fixed-circus”

Created to be at the centre of social life of the middle class society of XIX century, the “fixed circus” originated as a race-course where expert riders would fight in front of numerous spectators and supporters. Also, it became the theatre of athletic and acrobatic shows. Similar buildings sprang up all over Europe during those years, such as the “Renz” circus of Berlin in 1855 or the “Fernando” circus of Paris in 1875.

The fixed-circus is basically composed of an approximately 14 meter circular arena surrounded by stands, premises for the public, stables and management offices. Boxes and galleries above the stands were often included, as well as an anti-chamber to the arena where horses could be saddled and all the performers could gather.

1856 - Vittorio Emanuele II Royal Hippodrome

This arose due to a State initiative, perhaps to open a public race-course which could accomodate more than 1300 people, considering that the population of Turin had risen from sixty-six thousand to one hundred and eighty thousand inhabitants, while taking advantage of the presence and facilities of the Royal and Chiablese stables.Designed by Gaetano Bertolotti and directed by the brothers Bogetto and Leopoldo Galli, it could contain 4,500 spectators in its stalls and its two surrounding galleries. Already in 1869 its use as a circus was irregular, as one could read in the Turin described by Baricco: “Soon after its construction, the building was adapted for performances of opera music and dance, but when necessary, it could still be converted into an equestrian and athletic circus.”

The future of the Vittorio theatre as a concert hall.

Arturo Toscanini in Turin. In 1872 the “Vittorio” was reserved mainly for concert activity with a series of concerts conducted by maestro Pedrotti. Torino became the first Italian city to organise regular symphonic seasons with a permanent orchestra, which continued until 1883. For the Italian General Exhibition in 1884, “the committee wanted the musical art to be fittingly represented…with a series of symphonic concerts showing the cultural level achieved in such music in Italy.” This ambition was fulfilled with the creation of an orchestra in Turin made up of approximately one hundred musicians. The Concert orchestra was enlarged with the addition of new elements such as a young violoncellist destined to become a great director: Arturo Toscanini. It was he who took this new entity, the Municipal Orchestra, under his wing. He was conductor and Principal Director for three years, managing 43 concerts during the Exhibition in 1898. At the same time Toscanini, together with Giuseppe Depani, founded the Concert Society, in order to organise regular seasons following on the experience gained with the popular Concerts. The activity of the orchestra continued even after Toscanini’s departure for Milan, until 1915, the year when it was dissolved due to war and economic reasons.

1901, 1910, 1926 - The Teatro Vittorio and its restructure At the beginning of the XX century, the architectural theatre structure showed signs of ageing and the hall was handed over for free use to “that Society, composed of elected citizens, who were there for that reason”. Therefore, in 1901, the engineer Count Antonio Vandone of Cortemilia completely redesigned the building architecturally, moving and enlarging the access stairs to the galleries in order to allow more potential growth to the ticket office and cloak room facilities, and on the first floor, building a foyer, a buffet, bathrooms and relocating the access to the royal box. He lowered the stage floor, removing the access for the horses and rebuilding the hall ceiling, while completely refurbishing the interior. The same Antonio Vandone restructured the hall again in 1910 and 1924-26. Together with the engineer Antonio Giberti, the reconstruction in 1926 gave the stage mechanical devices and improved visibility, substituting the wide pillars in the hall with thinner ones; the Royal Box was removed and the interior decoration was altered with the use of diffused lighting effects.

1952 - Auditorium Rai Following the fire at the ex-theatre Scribe or “di Torino”, which deprived the RAI Symphonic Orchestra of Turin of a hall capable of hosting them, the Managing Director of the time signed the contract to buy Teatro Vittorio and gave Aldo Morbelli the task of planning a project on the building layout and asking, contemporaneously, for opinions from five famous architects regarding its acoustics requirements. The architect Carlo Mollino won the contest and joined the group of collaborators. There were various requisites - enlarging the entrance, the ticket office and toilets, that is to say generally improving the access points for the public, and providing an area for relaxation during the intermissions. As for the hall, without compromising the acoustics, the public’s view of the stage had to be improved. Therefore the proscenium was enlarged by almost six meters, and the central part of the four-manual concert organ was positioned in the center, behind the orchestra. The hall, with all the most recent technological recording devices, was inaugurated on 16 December 1952 with a concert conducted by Mario Rossi with music by Stravinsky, Mozart e Rossini, followed by Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony three days later conducted by Wilhelm Fürtwängler

2006 - Auditorium Rai

The restored hall was unveiled on January 19th 2006, with a great symphonic concert by the RAI National Symphonic Orchestra conducted by its main conductor, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, playing Symphony no. 2 in C minor, "Resurrection", by Gustav Mahler. Performers included soprano Elizabeth Norberg-Schulz, contralto Sara Mingardo and the “Ruggero Maghini” Philharmonic Choir of Turin conducted by Claudio Chiavazza. On the two following Sundays (22 and 29 January), the Auditorium was open to the public all day, hosting thousands of people who flocked in to attend the concerts by the chamber groups of the RAI National Symphonic Orchestra in the new hall, which has been given back to music.

2007 - Dedication to Arturo Toscanini

On October 4th, 2007, the Auditorium was dedicated to Arturo Toscanini on the fiftieth anniversary of his death.