Teatro di San Carlo ★★

One of the world's top opera houses is in Naples

San Carlo is one of the oldest, largest, and most respected opera houses in Italy, built by Giovanni Medrano in 1737 under the auspices of Charles of Bourbon (who didn't particularly care for opera, but cared very much about his reputation as an enlightened patron of the arts).

After a fire in 1816, the theater was rebuilt by Antonio Niccolini—who, it is said, filled the walls with terra-cotta vases to help give the performance space what is still widely regarded as the best acoustics in Europe—and San Carlo reopened under the musical direction of Gioacchino Rossini.

The glittering chandeliers and sumptuous red velvet and gold accouterments of the vast interior—seating 3000 in six tiers of box seats—have seen the premiers of operas by Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti.

The original primadonnas
One of the greatest professional and social coups for a soprano in Europe is to be contracted by Naples' San Carlo opera house to sing as the first lady in the company. How do you say "first lady "in Italian? Why, prima donna, of course.The Sancarlo has also hosted more than 250 years of Neapolitan society. While Neapolitans are indisputably lovers of great opera, that have traditionally attended the season at San Carlo more to see what everyone else is wearing this year—and for the gentlemen to play a between-acts round-robin of the private boxes occupied by unmarried ladies.

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