Since the nineteenth century, the Municipal Theatre has been the beating heart of an operatic tradition deeply rooted in local popular culture. The Municipal Theatre is linked to the names of Mirella Freni, Raina Kabaivanska, Nicolai Ghiaurov, and Luciano Pavarotti, after whom the theatre was named in 2007. Every year, the Municipal Theatre puts on a wonderful season of operas, concerts and ballets, open to new musical and visual languages, making it one of the most important and valuable Italian theatres.
The upper-circle box-holders of the Teatro Vecchio commissioned Claudio Rossi, professor at the school of design and together with Cesare Costa exponent of the Modenese neoclassic trend, to design the project of the new theatre. Rossi presented two projects.
The Theater of the Collegio San Carlo was inaugurated in 1737. It was obtained from the transformation of the rooms on the upper floor of the ancient Osteria del Montone which, in those years, had been purchased and incorporated into the constantly expanding Collegio building.
