Built between 1820 and 1829 on behalf of the wealthiest citizens of Macerata, “I Cento consorti”, as the façade inscription displays, the Arena (semi-circular open-air theatre) was originally designed by Salvatore Innocenzi, but later its construction was carried out following the project of the young Ireneo Aleandri and it was inaugurated in 1829. Formerly designed for the Game of the Ball with Bracelet, which was very popular in the mid-nineteenth century, it hosted a wide range of public performances such as festivals, joustings, cavalcades, political demonstrations, sporting events, circuses and bull huntings. After a first series of theatre performances at the end of the nineteenth century, in the twentieth century for the first time the inner part of the building was firmly considered to be the perfect location for opera, thanks to the harmony of its neoclassical colonnade, its high rectilinear wall and its wide open central space.