The pride of the city's cultural life and its architectural richness, the first theater space in Fano has a long and troubled history which is reflected in the complexity of its aesthetic richness.
The complex history of the Fano theater begins way back in 1556 when the ancient fourteenth-century hall of the podestà palace was transformed into the Comedy Hall, equipped with a fixed stage and scene. Subsequently, between 1665 and 1667, the Fano scenographer Giacomo Torelli took charge of the transformation of the structure into the first Teatro della Fortuna, enriching the hall with five orders of wooden boxes and a large stage. The space was mainly intended for the representation of baroque melodramas and so-called playful dramas; starting from 1818 the theater program was further enriched with prestigious works such as Cinderella, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and L'inganno Felice by Gioachino Rossini, Il Pirata e la Norma by Bellini and with L'elisir d'amore and Il Furioso by Donizetti. In 1845 the Modenese architect Luigi Poletti was the author of the project for the current theater which replaced the previous one which was demolished due to unusability, perfecting the architectural forms and creating a perfect harmony of lines and masses; a large amphitheater base was built enriched by small winged sphinxes placed between each stage. Note the elegance of the fluted columns, the fretwork motif of the parapet and the rich decorations of golden stucco. With Poletti's new theatre, there was the full triumph of romantic opera first and realistic one later with the best-known titles of as many illustrious artists such as Giuseppe Verdi, Bizet, Puccini, Mascagni, Leoncavallo, and also, in 1906, Richard Wagner with his Lohengrin.
Today's theatre, whose façade is the ancient Palazzo del Podestà founded in 1299, was seriously damaged during the Second World War by the collapse of the adjacent civic tower and fragments that fell on the roof of the hall. Only fifty-four years after its forced closure, in the spring of 1998, the theater was reopened to the public, after the long and complex restoration and renovation operations which preserved its ancient appearance while renewing all the systems and technical equipment.
The Poletti Hall is the main one used for shows, with approximately 595 seats, three tiers of boxes and a large gallery balcony; the vault, faithfully rebuilt because it was destroyed in 1944, features a concentric crown motif. The large curtain depicts an imaginary entrance of Emperor Caesar Octavian Augustus into the ancient Colonia Iulia Fanestris: a decidedly valuable work for its richness of color and accuracy of design and homage to the ancient history of the city.
The other paintings, only partially preserved, are in the lunette vaults of the first atrium, by Gioacchino and Mariano Grassi, while in the ticket office room the cross vault preserves the only surviving compartment of what were the sixteenth-century and Raphaelesque decorations of the ancient loggia of the Palazzo del Podestà. From the second atrium, going up the stairs that develop on the two smaller sides you reach the renovated Sala Verdi, a vast room once intended for dance parties, concerts and conferences.
