Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 171, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 July 1919 — VENICE HAD FIRST THEATER [ARTICLE]

VENICE HAD FIRST THEATER

Buildings Designed Solely for Performances Were Erected in the Italian City in the Year 1629. The theater proper began in Venice in 1629, when comedy and melodrama, hitherto presented on temporary stages erected in the squares or in the halls of palaces, passed into buildings especially made for that purpose. Pompeo Molmenti, the Italian historian, relates that the earliest genuine musical drama heard in Venice was the Proserpinaarapita of Giulio Strozzl, set to music by Caudio Montevarde. From 1637 onward theaters rose so rapidly that by the close’ of the Seicento they numbered 18 in Venice; some were devoted to comedy, others to .music, others again were used indifferently for comedy or melodrama. Almost all the theaters belonged to noblemen who reserved boxes for themselves and took the rent for the buffet. The Council of Ten settled the hour of the performance and the length of time it might take.. The advertisements were posted at the piazzetta and at Rialto, while criers went through the town to announce the play and_the hour when the house would open.