Theatre in Modena: the New Hall at Teatro delle Passioni, and the 2026/27 Season

Modena has two working theatres, both run by one of Italy's national theatre companies, and I have yet to hear a visitor mention either. The guides give the city the cathedral, the balsamic vinegar and Ferrari, and stop there.

That is a shame mostly for arithmetic reasons. A seat at a national theatre here costs less than a plate of tortellini in half the places I would send you.

Modena has two theatres, and most visitors never find them

Teatro Storchi, Largo Garibaldi, at the edge of the historic centre. The big traditional house: the main productions, the classics, the names you recognise.

Teatro delle Passioni, viale Carlo Sigonio, south of the centre. The contemporary one. It has a Sala Grande, reopened in October 2026 after a long stretch dark, and a Sala Piccola. ERT also programmes Il Ridotto del Teatro Storchi, a third and much smaller space.

The photograph above is the Sala Grande before curtain on the night it reopened: hotel room, round moon window, and a lighting rig that had not been used in years.

Both are walkable. Storchi from anywhere in the old town; Passioni is a slightly longer walk south, and the way back through the lit centre afterwards is part of the evening.

What ERT actually is

Both theatres belong to Emilia Romagna Teatro ERT, which is a teatro nazionale — one of the handful of companies the Italian state recognises at the top tier. That is a funding category, not a compliment, but it has consequences. ERT produces its own work rather than renting the stage out, it co-produces internationally, and the directors and actors who pass through are the ones Milan and Rome also get.

The practical translation: what you see in Modena on a Tuesday is not provincial repertory. It is often the same production that will be in a larger city next month, in a hall with four hundred fewer seats.

Each season carries a title and runs roughly October to May. The current programme is always on ERT's own site: modena.emiliaromagnateatro.com.

Tickets, and the curtain time that moves

Tickets are sold on ERT's site and at the box office. In the 2026/27 season they start at around €13 and climb from there with the production and the seat — treat that figure as the shape of the thing rather than a quote, because prices are set season by season.

Curtain times move with the day of the week. Weeknights tend to be 20:30, Saturdays 19:00, Sundays 18:00. Tend to. It changes production by production and nobody flags it, so read the line for the specific date instead of trusting the one you saw last time.

Book early for the small halls. The Sala Piccola and the Ridotto hold very few people. They do not sell out loudly; they are simply gone.

Under two hours there is usually no interval, and in contemporary programming that is most of the time. Eat first.

It is in Italian, and there are no surtitles

This is the part a tourist office would leave out, so: performances are in Italian, surtitles are rare to non-existent, and no, you will not follow a dense text play.

That is not the end of the conversation. What survives the language gap, in descending order: anything physical or danced, anything musical, Goldoni and the classics if you read a synopsis first, and — this one surprises people — a good monologue. Ninety minutes of one actor in one room carries further than you would think, because the voice is doing most of the work and you are not chasing six people talking over each other.

What does not survive: contemporary ensemble pieces built on dialogue. Skip those, go to a concert instead, and do not let anyone tell you it comes across anyway.

A seat at a national theatre here costs less than a plate of tortellini in half the places I would send you.

This season, at the time of writing

Listings checked 29 October 2026. Programmes move, dates are added, productions are cancelled. ERT's site is the only version that is current; this is a snapshot.

The 2026/27 season is called Opera Aperta and runs from 23 October 2026 to 30 May 2027. Dates worth knowing:

• Escaped Alone — Passioni, Sala Grande, 5–8 November 2026
• Una delle ultime sere di Carnovale — Storchi, 5–8 November 2026
• Il delirio del particolare — Passioni, Sala Grande, 13–19 November 2026
• AiAiAi Pinocchio! — Storchi, 29 November 2026 (the one to take children to)
• Il cappotto — Passioni, Sala Grande, 15–20 December 2026
• Carosonamente | Capodanno — Passioni, Sala Grande, 31 December 2026 (yes, a New Year's Eve show)
• Orlando furioso — Storchi, 28–31 January 2027
• Sabato, domenica e lunedì — Storchi, 8–11 April 2027

The hall in the photograph was reopened by Viaggio a Hong Kong, a Pascal Rambert monologue performed by Sandro Lombardi: an elderly writer in a hotel room on the thirtieth floor, putting his affairs in order before disappearing. The opening night, booked for 23 October 2026, was cancelled by a national strike in live entertainment, so the first audience went in on the 24th. A theatre that reopens a day late because of a strike is, in its way, very Italian.

Season dates and prices as published in October 2026. The two theatres are not going anywhere; the programme changes every year.