Description
Built in the early 60s on an area that once housed the sports field, the Villa Comunale was later named after the writer Primo Levi. Inside, there is the monument to Sebastiano Genovese and the new theater. Mandanici.
Il Monument to Sebastiano Genovese, was designed in 1988 by the Barcellona artist Filippo Minolfi to commemorate the Professor of Hydrobiology Sebastiano Genovese, born in 1926 and who died in an accident in 1983. Made of stainless steel, it consists of two triangular elements reminiscent of the sails of a boat, thus recalling Genovese's passion and scientific interest in the sea, a central element of his studies. The spheres, as a cosmic symbol, represent the universality of his thought, but also reference the bathyscaphe used by the Barcellona scientist for diving in the Strait of Messina.
After the fire and demolition of the remains of the old Theatre Mandanici, the choice of site for the New Theatre fell on the area of the municipal park. The project was entrusted to the Catania architect Giovanni Leone, and work began in 1980 but proceeded slowly, with long periods of inactivity.
On August 6, 1986, the incomplete structure of the theatre was inaugurated "as a construction site", with a show conceived by Emilio Isgrò: "Dido Adonais Domine'; directed by Memè Perlini, with sets by Antonello Aglioti and starring Francesca Benedetti.
In 2010, an "adaptation project" reshaped the initial design. The structure, completed in 2012 and opened to the public in 2014, has a capacity of nearly a thousand seats, with the stalls located in half the area originally planned for the central stage and a state-of-the-art technological section.
