The Historic Asolo Theater: The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art

• The only book available in the book trade on this sumptuous theatre

An 18th-century treasure in a 21st-century venue, the Historic Asolo Theater is a work of art in its own right. The palace playhouse was created in Asolo, Italy, in 1798 to honour the 15th-century exiled Queen Caterina Cornaro of Cyprus. In the late 1930s, the theatre was dismantled to make way for a film theatre. Following World War II, the artefact was purchased by the Ringling Museum and brought to America for installation in the Museum of Art. From this important stage sprang much of the theatre, the opera and the music that distinguishes this Gulf Coast city as one of the nation’s leading cultural centres. Today, the theatre features a diverse performance schedule including theatre, dance, film, music and lectures. Its unique architecture and exquisite detail is celebrated here in the latest instalment of the Scala Art Spaces series with The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art.

Other titles published by Scala for the Ringling Museum incude: Beyond Bling, Ca d’Zan: Ringling’s Venetian Palace: Art Spaces, Grounds and Gardens: Art Spaces, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art: Director’s Choice, Paolo Veronese, R. Luke DuBois, Triumph and Taste and Circus Museum: Art Spaces. 

Dwight Currie is Curator of the Historic Asolo Theater.