[2] Ciriaco d'Ancona was filled with admiration for the way it had been built and Giovanni Antonio Panteo's civic panegyric De laudibus veronae, 1483, remarked that it struck the viewer as a construction that was more than human.

In 1913, operatic performances in the arena commenced in earnest due to the zeal and initiative of the Italian opera tenor Giovanni Zenatello and the impresario Ottone Rovato.

[4] Once capable of housing 20,000 patrons per performance (now limited to 15,000 because of safety reasons), the arena has featured many of world's most notable opera singers.

In the post-World War II era, they have included Giuseppe Di Stefano, Maria Callas, Tito Gobbi and Renata Tebaldi among other names.

The opera productions in the Verona Arena had not used any microphones or loudspeakers until a sound reinforcement system was installed in 2011.

In recent times, the arena has also hosted several concerts of international rock and pop bands, among which Zucchero Fornaciari, who holds the record of the highest number of concerts in the location, 38 from 1989 to 2017, and the highest number of concerts during the same tour, 22 of the Black Cat World Tour, Roger Waters, Bruce Springsteen, Elisa, Eros Ramazzotti, Laura Pausini, Pink Floyd, Alicia Keys, One Direction, Simple Minds (whose concert film Verona was filmed at the venue during their Street Fighting Years Tour on 15 September 1989)[6] Duran Duran, Deep Purple, The Who, Dire Straits, Scatman John, Mike Oldfield, Rod Stewart, Michael Flatley, Yanni, Sting, Pearl Jam, Radiohead, Peter Gabriel, Björk, Eiffel 65, Muse, Leonard Cohen, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Jamiroquai, Whitney Houston, Mumford & Sons, Kiss, Spandau Ballet, 5 Seconds Of Summer, Måneskin, 2Cellos, and Evanescence.

[7] From 25 September 2021 to 4 October 2023, the venue hosted "Arena Suzuki", an Italian television program of a variety of musical genres, broadcast in prime time on Rai 1, and presented by Amadeus.