Teatro della Pergola

[1] The opera house, the first to be built with superposed tiers of boxes rather than raked semi-circular seating in the Roman fashion,[2] is considered to be the oldest in Italy, having occupied the same site for more than 350 years.

Work on completing the interior was finished in 1661, in time for the celebration of the wedding of the future grand duke Cosimo III de' Medici, with the court spectacle Ercole in Tebe by Giovanni Antonio Boretti.

In this theatre the great operas of Mozart were heard for the first time in Italy, and Donizetti's Parisina and Rosmonda d'Inghilterra, Verdi's Macbeth (1847) and Mascagni's I Rantzau were given their premiere productions.

By the nineteenth century, La Pergola was performing operas of the best-known composers of the day including Vincenzo Bellini, Gaetano Donizetti and Giuseppe Verdi.

La Pergola's present appearance dates from an 1855–57 remodelling; it has the traditional horseshoe-shaped auditorium with three rings of boxes and topped with a gallery.