Teatro Manzoni

Built in 1850 as a live theatre. Seating was provided in orchestra level, 3 tiers of boxes and an upper gallery. It became the Teatro della Commedia on 3rd December 1872. On 3rd May 1873 it was re-named Teatro Manzoni. On 14th August 1943 the the theatre was destroyed by bombing.

It was rebuilt to the designs of architect Mario Cavalle with seating for 1,400. It reopened as the Teatro Cinema Manzoni on 20th October 1950 with a performance of the American Ballet Theatre. There was a basement cinema (seating capacity unknown). A bar is in the theatre and the lobby is conceived as a covered square, with various sculptures.

On 9th April 1955 the main theatre auditorium became the first cinema after New York and London to be equipped with 3-projection Cinerama, opening with “This Is Cinerama”. 3-strip Cinerama continued until it was removed on 15th October 1963. It was equipped with 70mm from 11th September 1964. The auditorium now has 1,170 seats, on the main floor and in one balcony, and the ceiling dome has a mural. Plays and live performances have been presented, in addition to movies. The basement cinema had THX surround sound. In January 2005, the first digital projector in Milan was installed, a CMC-D2 digital projector, but unfortunately in June 2006, the basement cinema closed.

By 2010, the main theatre auditorium was operating as a live performance & concert theatre.

Recent comments (view all 1 comments)

HowardBHaas on August 31, 2010 at 6:34 pm

2006 photos by Roloff
exterior View link
lobby View link

Scroll down for photo of auditorium in 2005
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