The Italian Cultural Institute of Miami presents L’Officina dell’Immaginario (The Workshop of Imagination), an exhibition dedicated to the Workshop of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and to the expertise, creativity, and traditional craftsmanship that takes shape behind the scenes of an opera production.
The exhibition invites visitors to look beyond the curtain and discover how an artistic intuition can be transformed into stage design, costumes, and sets. At its heart are not only the finished works, but above all the creative process that makes them possible: a collaborative effort involving artists, set designers, costume designers, painters, artisans, and specialized technicians.
It is precisely this collective dimension that represents one of the most significant aspects of this project. L’Officina dell’Immaginario brings to an international audience a fundamental, and often lesser-known, component of Italy’s theatrical tradition: the ability to bring together painting, sculpture, architecture, set design, theatrical tailoring, music, and craftsmanship within a single artistic experience.
Throughout the twentieth century, the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma was an important meeting place for the visual and performing arts, welcoming the contributions of renowned artists including Giorgio de Chirico, Renato Guttuso, Pablo Picasso, Arnaldo Pomodoro, and many others, as well as directors such as Luchino Visconti and Franco Zeffirelli. Their collaborations helped expand the language of the stage, demonstrating how theater can become a space in which different art forms, while maintaining their own identities, acquire new expressive possibilities through mutual dialogue.
The exhibition in Miami brings together 10 stage costumes designed by Pablo Picasso, Renato Guttuso, Arnaldo Pomodoro, Danilo Donati, Mariano Fortuny and Caramba (Luigi Sapelli); two original maquettes created for productions directed by Luchino Visconti and David Walker; approximately 40 historical photographs; as well as an entire section dedicated to the first performance of Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca, featuring materials from the Ricordi Historical Archive. A special section is also devoted to Giorgio de Chirico, with the costume he designed for Giuseppe Verdi’s Otello, as well as the costume of the Duke of Mantua for Verdi’s Rigoletto, designed by Caramba and used by de Chirico in 1948 to paint his self-portrait in a black costume.
The immersive room dedicated to The Rite of Spring as interpreted by Renato Guttuso is particularly evocative: a scenic reproduction created by the Workshop’s painters allows visitors to physically enter the artist’s visual universe and experience the monumental dimension of theatrical painting.
The experience is further enhanced by an olfactory journey created in collaboration with Profumum Roma, designed to evoke atmospheres, materials, and impressions associated with the world of theater. This additional sensory element expands the exhibition’s narrative and invites visitors to experience the stage environment through multiple forms of perception.
Curated by Marzia Rubcich and produced by Echos Events Communication Strategy in partnership with the Fondazione Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and the Ricordi Archive, L’Officina dell’Immaginario highlights a reality that is deeply representative of Italian culture: a theater where tradition, creativity, and craftsmanship come together, and where imagination becomes matter, space, and experience.
Opening: Monday, September 21, 2026, at 6:30 p.m.
Reservations: iicmiami.segreteria@esteri.it