Ottoman Palace Theaters

The 19th century was a period of innovation and westernization in the Ottoman Empire when a colossal cultural transformation took place, a transformation that naturally had an impact on the arts of drama and music as well. We are going to speak here of the initiatives of the art-loving sultans and the orchestras, theaters and operas they established in their palaces.

PALACE CONSERVATORIES
Sultans Selim III, Mahmud II and, especially, Abdülmecid played an important role in the development of the arts of drama and music. Giuseppe Donizetti, brother of the famous opera composer Gaetano Donizetti, was invited to Istanbul during the period of Mahmud II to set up a military orchestra on western lines. This orchestra, which simultaneously functioned as a conservatory where young people of the palace were trained in both music and the stage arts, was called the Muzika-i Hümâyun or Imperial Music School. In other words, today’s Presidential Symphony Orchestra is an institution with a 176-year-old history.

The palace took a great interest not only in music but in the theater and opera as well. We learn, for example, from a contemporary document that Selim III attended operas, and that two theaters and two amphitheaters for circus performances were erected in Istanbul in 1839-40, one of them commissioned by the famous Italian illusionist, Bartalomeo Bosco. Called the Naum Theater, it is known in western sources as the Imperial Theater. This theater, where Italian theater and opera companies staged performances, enjoyed the patronage of the palace. We should also point out that since no permanent theater building was constructed in any of the palaces until 1859, temporary stages and salons were erected for performances up to that year.

THE FIRST PALACE THEATER
The first permanent palace theater is the Dolmabahçe Palace Theater, commissioned by Sultan Abdülmecid and located not far from the palace at the bottom of the slope going up to Gümüssuyu.

Its architects were Dieterle and Hammont, its interior decorator Sechan, who was also responsible for the interior decoration of palace itself. With a capacity of 300, the theater had a parterre and loggias on the ground level, more loggias on the first level and special loggias with grilles on the second level for the palace women. Its stage represented the state of the art in technical equipment for its time.
The Dolmabahçe Palace Theater opened on 12 January 1859. All the palace residents as well as prominent men of state and ambassadors of foreign countries were invited to the opening. First, two scenes of an opera by Ricci were performed, followed by a short violin recital and ending with a ballet performance. This theater was of enormous importance for Turkish drama insofar as the writing of the first Turkish play was commissioned to Ibrahim Sinasi Efendi, to be performed here. Sinasi Efendi wrote a brief but hilarious comedy, The Marriage of the Poet, that lampooned Anatolian wedding customs.

But theatrical companies from the Naum Theater gave most of the performances here, where the stage doubled as a practice ground for the students of the Imperial School of Music. All this activity notwithstanding, the theater was short-lived. A fire that broke out in 1863 during the period of Sultan Abdülmecid gutted a portion of the interior and it was never rebuilt. All that remains today of this theater are an engraving showing the interior, an old photograph, and an anonymous painting in the State Museum of Painting and Sculpture. It is apparent from the extremely detailed engraving that everything inside the theater from the ceiling decorations to the chandelier was quite beautiful. The space at the center of the loggias on the second level was the imperial loggia of Abdülmecid, who is just barely visible in the picture.

WHY THE PARTERRE WAS EMPTY
Turning now to the second palace theater, this was located on the grounds of Yildiz Palace and is still standing today.

Commissioned by Abdülhamid II, who took a close interest in theater and music, it opened in 1889. The palace architect, Raimondo d’Aronco, undertook the project, which was executed by architect Vasilaki Kalfa’s son Yorgo. Although the stage was originally designed in the shape of a horseshoe, in the final construction it took the form of a rectangle. There is a parterre below and a gallery above where the loggias are located. Directly opposite the stage, above the main entrance, is the large imperial loggia. Some of the loggias near it have grilles to enable the women of the harem to watch the performances. On the stage meanwhile the parterre was left empty so that no one would be able to turn his back on the sultan. For the same reason, the orchestra sat below the gallery, stage right. Despite its diminutive size with a depth of only six meters, the stage could accommodate dramatic and musical productions of every kind with the exception of ballet.

STRAVOLO, THE LIFE OF THE PALACE
The famous European performers and foreign troupes that came to Istanbul occasionally performed at the Yildiz Palace theater. A singer of comic opera from Italy caused such mirth that the sultan conferred on him the rank of lieutenant colonel and made him director of the theater. This was Arturo Stravolo. Nor was he alone; his wife, his father, his daughters, his two brothers and their wives were all opera singers who were incorporated into the palace opera company together with him. A multi-faceted personality, Stravolo not only staged serious operas but also played roles in comedies. Whatever the sultan desired, Stravolo could instantaneously bring it to life on stage, adapting and staging, for example, a novel the sultan had read and enjoyed. Observing his patron closely, Stravolo halted a performance immediately if he sensed that the sultan felt bored or threatened, bringing onto the stage instead acrobats and trapeze artists. Stravolo, who also brought the first automobile to Istanbul, died in the city in 1956.

The theaters that once brought the stage arts from Pera to Dolmabahçe and Yildiz have lowered their curtains today. But the theater at Yildiz is open to visitors as the Museum of Theater and Stage Arts. Pay it a visit, to see and experience another time…

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