On 12th November 1867 the city of Pisa inaugurated the Regio Teatro Nuovo, situated in a part of town where the street plan and sanitary arrangements had recently been modernized. The idea of a new theatre for the town had been circulating since 1830 but the committee elected to choose an architect only came to anagreement in 1864 and adopted the plan by Andrea Scala. The painter Annibale Gatti was chosen to decorate the ceiling of the Ballroom (now the concert hall) with a fresco of The Triumph of Love.
Later on, this artist painted the drop-curtain depicting Goldoni in Pisa Reciting a Sonnet to the Arcadi Alfei in the Garden of Palazzo Scotto. Antonio Quadri and Antonio Bernasconi created the stucco mouldings; of particular interest are three masks above the theatre entrance, symbolising Comedy, Tragedy and Poetry. The gilding was done by Raffaello Fallani and Francesco Torri, while Enrico Andreotti and Lorenzo Marchini painted the foyer, the gaming rooms and the vaulted ceiling of the theatre. For the ceiling they used a clever interplay of “grottesco” elements, with cherubs, masks and strange creatures surrounding a central rose, adding lightness to the otherwise weighty decor.
In 1877 gates were installed in the external porch and in 1904the Theatre was named after Giuseppe Verdi. The building has been renovated and adapted several times, since the early 1900s, partly altering its original appearance. The most recent interventions, supervised by Massimo Carmassi(1985-1989), restored several rooms to their original appearance and recovered the balanced colour scheme of the decorations in the auditorium.