[1][2][3] Inaugurated on 11 July 1857,[4][5] the theatre was designed by Luigi Poletti, and is considered one of his architectural masterpieces, marking the transition from the purist neoclassical school of his training.

[2][3] The theatre is managed directly by Rimini's municipal government,[1] and hosts musical events and cultural festivals, such as the Sagra Musicale Malatestiana.

[9][10][11] While the papal aristoccracy and conservative professions supported the Corso, the nobility and bourgeoisie linked with Napoleonic Italy preferred the Fonte.

[9] On 9 December 1840 or 15 May 1841,[6][9] the Modenese architect Luigi Poletti was chosen to design Rimini's New Municipal Theatre (Italian: Teatro Nuovo Comunale).

[2][6] On 11 July 1857, the theatre hall was inaugurated with a performance of Giuseppe Verdi's Il Trovatore, directed by Angelo Mariani,[4][5] orchestral director of Genoa's Teatro Carlo Felice.

[4] At Verdi's insistence,[4] the inaugural cast included soprano Marcellina Lotti Della Santa,[3][4] Pancani as tenor, and baritone Gaetano Ferri [it].

The performance included 38 choristers, La Fenice's corps de ballet, led by Giovannina Pitteri and Virgilio Calori [pl], at least 60 extras, and 18 band members.

[4][13][14] The inaugural season consisted of twenty-two shows and some repeats, budgeted at 8,800 scudi, of which 5,000 were paid by Rimini's municipal government, and 3,800 by the box owners.

[4] It was a major event in the city, which attracted many foreign visitors, with Verdi's portrait hanging in shop windows and on walls.

[16] In 1898, a smaller theatre was built in the ballroom of the upper floor by raising two orders of galleries and placing between the levels of the stairs.

[17] The earthquakes also destroyed Poletti's original studies for the project, though six photographs by Luigi Perilli from circa 1900 and five watercolour drawings remain extant.

[2] As part of the subsequent restorations, the theatre was equipped with an electrical system, its chandelier was replaced,[6] and the stage's length was reduced to accommodate an orchestra pit.

Conductor Antonio Guarnieri performed at the theatre, and visiting opera singers included Alessandro Bonci, Giuseppe Borgatti, Gina Cigna, Mafalda Favero, Carlo Galeffi, Beniamino Gigli, Giacomo Lauri-Volpi, Carmen Melis, Francesco Merli, Ezio Pinza, Rosa Raisa, Ebe Stignani, Lina Pagliughi, Aureliano Pertile, and Mario Del Monaco.

[16] The theatre remained in use during the Second World War; its final performance was Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly on 21 March 1943.

[20] On 6 May 1947, following the deposition of the Italian monarchy, a resolution of Rimini's municipal government unanimously renamed the theatre after Amintore Galli.

[21] Galli was a music journalist, composer, and musicologist, whose birth place is disputed between Perticara [it], now a frazione of Novafeltria, or Talamello, in the valley of the Marecchia.

[20][28] For many residents of the city, governed by successive left-wing administrations, the historic theatre represented archaic aristocratic and bourgeois values, and therefore was to be reconstructed to a modernist design, if at all.

[6] Following the restoration, the atrium was used for meetings of Rimini's municipal council,[6][9] as well as occasional art exhibitions and comic book conferences.

[9] In 1984 or 1985,[3][15] Rimini's municipal administration announced a competition for a new theatre, which led to the commission of a modernist replacement by architect Adolfo Natalini.

[15] A campaign supporting its restoration was led by retired soprano Renata Tebaldi and endorsed by art historian Federico Zeri,[15] conductors Claudio Abbado, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Riccardo Muti, Carlo Maria Giulini and Riccardo Chailly, pianist Maurizio Pollini, performers Carla Fracci, Anna Caterina Antonacci, Franco Corelli, city planner Leonardo Benevolo, critic Cesare Garboli, and conservative organisation Italia Nostra.

[3] In 2010, Rimini's municipal government approved the complete restoration of the theatre to a modified version of Poletti's original design.

[2] On 28 October 2018,[2][3][31] the day of Poletti's birth,[3][28] the first performance was held in the restored theatre,[2][3] in a series of events including mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli,[20][31] danseur Roberto Bolle, and conductor Valery Gergiev.

[2] Leading up to the theatre's reopening, some local politicians called for its dedication to Victor Emmanuel II to be restored; others suggested it be renamed after Poletti or Verdi.

Directed by Manlio Benzi, it was set in Rimini between the Italian campaign in Ethiopia and the theatre's destruction during the Second World War on 28 December 1943.

[1][2][3][6] Its architecture was copied in other theatres in Romagna and the Marche:[3] Poletti adopted his Riminese design for Fano's Teatro della Fortuna.

[9] As part of the 2010 restorations, the municipal government eliminated two staircases,[28] and rebuilt much of the theatre using reinforced concrete covered with stucco or plaster.

[15] For the theatre's original 1857 inauguration, Poletti commissioned Francesco Coghetti to paint a stage curtain depicting Caesar crossing the Rubicon.

Poletti had previously considered commissioning Coghetti to paint Flaminius wearing the consular insignia in Rimini's forum, but chose the Caesarian subject given its more popular recognition.

[18] Coghetti's curtain was moved to various warehouses of Rimini's municipal government,[18][35] and restored by Laura Ugolini in 2017 in collaboration with the Superintendency of Ravenna and Florence's Opificio delle Pietre Dure.

[2] The museum takes advantage of excavations that uncovered a Roman domus, Byzantine finds, and the ancient Malatesta city walls underneath the theatre.