Built by the architect Luigi Canonica and inaugurated in 1803, this theatre has played host to performances of different kinds and with all the great divi of the time, from Paganini and Pasta to Malibran. Here, in 1893, Carlo Bertolazzi’s El nost Milan had its first performance. After various vicissitudes, the Carcano was closed in 1946 and reopened in 1948, but live prose theatre only returned there in 1965. Renovated in the early 1980s, its director since 1997 has been Giulio Bosetti. Today it is a theatre dedicated principally to a classical repertoire, with some incursions of the contemporary (Shakespeare, Goldoni, Pirandello, De Filippo, Beckett, Fo, and so on), performed by noted names of Italian theatre (Albertazzi, Lavia, Foà, Paolo Poli, Pagliai-Gassman, Proclemer, Guerritore, Falk, Lella Costa); the theatre also plays host to dance and operetta performances and various cultural initiatives. The hall, with orchestra and balcony, is large, with 900 seats, all with good visibility.