Early theatres in Naples

It was the professional home to acting troupes from Spain "playing the provinces," and it provided a stage for the improvised antics of the masked and costumed figures in the then innovative Italian commedia dell'arte.

In its heyday, the theatre was so successful that the government put a tax on their proceeds to finance the Casa dei Incurabili, a home for people with incurable diseases.

It was torn down in the early 17th century and replaced by the church San Giorgio dei Genovesi, built to serve the considerable Genovese population in Naples at the time.

Antonio Orefice's Patrò Calienno de la Costa which premiered there in 1709 was the first opera buffa in Neapolitan dialect to be performed on a public stage.

In 1724 the opera seria Didone abbandonata with the intermezzo L'impresario delle Isole Canarie by Metastasio and the composer Domenico Sarro was performed there.