Great Theatre of Moldavia | |
Front view
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Address | 18 Agatha Bârsescu Street Iași Romania |
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Type | National theatre |
Capacity | Large Hall 850 seats The Cube Theatre 180 seats Teofil Vâlcu Hall 100 seats The Theatre Plant 100 seats |
Production | Fântâna Blanduziei |
Construction | |
Opened | 1840 |
Rebuilt | 1894-1896 |
Architect | Fellner & Helmer |
Website | |
www.teatrulnationaliasi.ro |
The Iași National Theatre (Romanian: Teatrul Național Vasile Alecsandri) in Iași, Romania, is the oldest national theatre and one of the most prestigious theatrical institutions in Romania. In 1956, it was given the name of the renowned Romanian playwright and poet Vasile Alecsandri.
One of the first theatrical performance in Romanian language, was organized by Gheorghe Asachi, and held in the capital of Moldavia, Jassy/Iași, on 27 September 1816. In 1834, a Romanian production took place in Iași on the stage of the Théâtre de varieté, built in 1832 for the French Fouraux troupe.
The National Theatre was founded on 15 May 1840, as the Great Theatre of Moldavia, when the Romanian language troupe, led by Costache Caragiali, was united with the French troupe, under a single direction of Vasile Alecsandri and the management of Costache Caragiali. On 22 December 1846, a new audience hall was inaugurated in the former mansion of Prince Mihail Sturdza, on the Hill of Copou.
On the night of 17/18 February 1888, the theatre building was destroyed by the fire.
The efforts to build the new theatre edifice culminated in 1894 when a contract was signed with the Viennese architects Ferdinand Fellner and Hermann Helmer, who designed several theatres and palaces across Europe, including the theatres in: Cluj-Napoca, Oradea, Timișoara and Chernivtsi (Romanian: Cernăuți).
For the building work, a contract was signed with a Bucharest company, and the power station was built by a company from Berlin. The Theatre’s power station also supplied with electricity the 12 electric-arc lamps lighting the Theatre Square, marking the beginning of electrification in the city of Iași. The works to building took two years, and on 1 and 2 December 1896, the inauguration festivities took place with Flechtenmacher's National Overture, the vaudevilles Muza de la Burdujeni (The Muse from Burdujeni) by Costache Negruzzi and Cinel-cinel (The Riddle) by Vasile Alecsandri, as well as the verse comedy Poetul romantic (The Romantic Poet) by Matei Millo.