Consortium Theatre of Budrio

The Consortium Theatre of Budrio ("Teatro Consorziale di Budrio") was born in the 17th century as a private theater of a bourgeois house by will of Paolo Sgarzi from Budrio. Since it was not unusual for that time, it was opened free of charge to the public for performances and dance parties. In 1802 the theater was bought for the sum of £. 2000 by the Consortium of participants of Budrio, from which it takes its current name of Consortium Theatre, and for the whole nineteenth century it hosted more or less regular shows.

The building in which the theater is located has been preserved almost unchanged, in spite of the building transformations and of the destructions caused by the wars of the last centuries: a first initiative of enlargement of the theater, originated from a proposal of 1906, and reached a project, approved, in 1915, could not have effect because of the Great War.

The most important of the interventions that have affected the Consortium in the past has certainly been the enlargement to which it was subjected between 1924 and 1928. They were works of great importance, which considerably widened the stalls, the development, the design of balconies, galleries and dressing rooms, and raised the building. The acoustics, excellent, and visibility for the public, from every seat, were the most important results of the great renovation of the years 1924-28, in addition to those aesthetic, also worthy of note. Dissolved the Partecipanza, in 1932 the theater passed in ownership to the Municipality.

The opera has represented, for over a century, starting from the 1920s, one of the most proper vocations for the Consortium, and in 2005 it hosted the performance of the Mozart Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado.