C. Inzerillo - Abstract

The theatrical activity in Urbino before the construction of the Sanzio Theatre (1859), was unbroken for over two centuries, by the end of the Duchy, which occurred in 1631, to the half of the nineteenth century. Numerous operas, dramas and comedies went on stage, of which a wide documentation in the archives of the town remains.
It was the Academy of Noble Lords Pascolini, a group of young aristocrats, eager to revive a theatrical activity in the former ducal capital, who wanted to keep alive the cultural, literary and musical tradition in a changed political reality, that of the papal government, more stable indeed, but less vibrant than the ducal splendor. Academics were personally involved, becoming, at least in the first decades, actors and dancers themselves, and above all they held shows, liaising with theatre managers of good reputation and music teachers, providing to keep their theatre in order, through a complex system of roles and regulations and strict bureaucratic procedures.

Their theatre, built in 1637, was housed in some rooms of the ground floor of the Palazzo Ducale and had its height of glory and expansion in the eighteenth century. The young James III Stuart in 1717 and in 1718, and the Queen of England, Caroline of Brunswick, wife of George Prince Regent of Wales, in May 1818, were some of its distinguished guests.