Brunet des Baines created a French Neoclassical exterior[2] for the theater, though his 1855 death left the supervision of the design to his countryman, Lucien Hénault, and to the latter's assistant, Manuel Aldunate.

The Teatro Municipal was inaugurated on September 17, 1857,[2] with the opera Ernani by Giuseppe Verdi, performed by an Italian company brought in specially for the occasion.

At the time, the theatre held 1,800 spectators, and included distinctive interior details such as a teardrop crystal chandelier.

A quick response by both the local government and Chilean high society resulted in the theatre's prompt reconstruction, designed by Henault and completed on July 16, 1873.

The institution continues to maintain an active repertoire, and some of its most illustrious recent international guest performers and conductors have included: names in ballet such as Julio Bocca, Mikhail Baryshnikov, the Bolshoi Ballet and the Mariinsky Ballet; pianists Claudio Arrau, Valentina Igoshina and Arthur Rubinstein, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Daniel Barenboim; violinists Mischa Elman, Jascha Heifetz, Yehudi Menuhin, Gil Shaham and Isaac Stern; conductors Zubin Mehta, Charles Dutoit, Kurt Masur and Pierre Boulez; and stage performers such as Plácido Domingo, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Charles Aznavour, Vivien Leigh, Luciano Pavarotti, Tito Schipa and Renée Fleming.