The present building of the Amilcare Ponchielli Theater is the result of a series of construction, reconstruction, alterations, maintenance and restoration that has lasted two hundred and fifty years. There are, however, basically two forms that the Cremonese theater has taken in its long history, the first dating back to the 1700s and the current one, which dates from 1808.
The story begins in 1747, when a group of nobles decided to endow the city with a proper theater, replacing the various, somewhat temporary, and in any case vanished, halls that had preceded it. The design commission was given to Giovanni Battista Zaist, a Cremonese architect who was part of the circle of the famous Bibiena. Teatro Nazari, named after the owner, changed its name in 1785, when it was purchased by the stagehands as the "Teatro della Società" or "Noble Association" theater.
That first construction was destroyed in 1806 by fire, as often happened to wooden theaters of the 1700s; however, the condominiums decided on its immediate reconstruction, entrusting the project to the best-known theater architect of the time, Luigi Canonica, who was inspired by his master, Piermarini, but with several original contributions.
Thus was built one of the best theaters of the time, with a horseshoe-shaped hall, four tiers of boxes and a gallery, which took the name Teatro della Concordia, to which was added, at the beginning of our century, that of Cremona's greatest opera composer, Amilcare Ponchielli. Improvements were also immediately made, including the lengthening of the stage, making it one of the largest in Italy. In 1824 a new fire partially destroyed the structure, which was immediately restored by Faustino Rodi and Luigi Voghera. Acquired to municipal ownership in 1986, since 1989 the Ponchielli has undergone radical restoration, rehabilitation and technological upgrading.
