Adelina Patti Theatre (Craig Y Nos)

• Theatre ID
  344
• Built / Converted
  —
• Dates of use
  • 1891: continuing
• Current state
  Extant
• Current use
  Theatre (Private theatre, now in occasional use)
• Address
  Craig-y-Nos Castle, Abercrave, Powys, SA9 1GL, Wales

Details

Added by Dame Adelina Patti and her husband, the tenor Nicolini, to the existing neo-Gothic house. The most ambitious of the few private theatres in Britain, and still intact. Like Chatsworth, it also functioned as a ballroom but has a proper stage with fly tower, and also original machinery and scenery, including a spectacular act drop of Patti as Semiramide, attributed to Hawes Craven. The stage has a slight negative rake. The small, rectangular auditorium has a coved and panelled ceiling and the walls are richly articulated by giant, fluted Corinthian columns. The proscenium, flanked by columns, has a central pedimented tablet with the names of Verdi, Rossini and Mozart. There is no fixed seating. The flat floor can be tilted downwards towards the stage to form a raked auditorium and a sunken orchestra pit opened up. The main house was for many years used as a hospital, later converted to a hotel. The theatre continues to be used at intervals for performances of opera and the fabric is well-maintained. There was a proposal to turn it into an Opera Study Centre with occasional public performances but this has so far made no progress. There has been however, an annual opera season for some years. The proscenium is 6m (20ft) wide and the stage has a depth of 6.46m (21ft). This is one of the most important private theatres in Britain and deserves exceptional effort to see it restored and brought back to use.

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• Events
  • 1891 Use: continuing
  • 1891 Design/Construction:
    • Bucknall & Jennings - Architect
  • Design/Construction: J
  • Owner/Management:
• Capacities
  • Current: 158
• Listings
  • Grade I
• Stage type
  • Pros flat
• Dimensions
  • Building dimensions: Auditorium 10.48m long x 7.46m wide
  • Stage dimensions: d: 6.46m at pros wing SL: 2.80m SR: 3.19m
  • Proscenium width: 6m
  • Height to grid: 7.93m approx
• Unreliable anecdotes
  The stage of the theatre has no rake in the conventional sense of the term, but there is a distinct, if slight, negative rake. It has been said that Patti, not being very tall, did not want to appear overshadowed and so arranged it that, when she appeared, she would enter downstage, the apparent height of those upstage of her being reduced by the negative rake. The room is said to be "a replica of the Drury Lane Theatre" (Alan Jones's book on the (Swansea) Grand Theatre p.197). It is not. "An exact copy of the Bayreuth Staatsoper"-part of the description in the recent sales prospectus. It is not. There is no such theatre.