On July 25, 1942, the troupe “Carro di Tespi Lirico” arrived in Tirana for the opera “La Traviata”. The General Directorate of Archives remembers this event which was probably the first lyric opera to be staged in Albania.

The stage was placed at the top of Viale del Impero (today “The Nation’s Martyrs Boulevard”), where Mother Teresa Square is today. With the exception of “La Traviata”, the Carro di Tespi Lirico troupe gave several other performances in July 1942.

In 1929, the fascist government of Rome created four traveling theater troupes that took the name “Carri di Tespi” (“Carriages of the Tespi”). “Carro di Tespi Lirico” covered opera and lyric song, while the other three staged theatrical pieces. The aim of these troupes was to bring theater and lyrical opera to the most isolated layers of society.

/k.s/