As for the theatre building, in the early 1960s the Municipal Administration promoted significant interventions aimed at modernising the Donizetti Theatre. Various interior spaces were renovated, and new rooms were built, including the Foyer, enriched by a fresco depicting a Theatre of the World. The Foyer, named after Gianandrea Gavazzeni, was enlarged following a significant project. Finally, between 2007 and 2008, work was carried out on various innovations in the rooms on the second floor and on the night lighting of the façade.
In 2014 the Theatre was taken over by the newly founded Fondazione Teatro Donizetti (Donizetti Theatre Foundation).
In February 2018, new restoration work began on the Donizetti Theatre, an extensive renovation and renewal project that aimed to make the city’s Theatre a home for culture, a lively and open place, a unique meeting, and socialising space, a truly public, prestigious and at the same time familiar place.
The project included the restoration and conservation of all the monumental parts of the building. Specific care was devoted to the theatre hall and the entrance foyer. Specific care was devoted to the theatre hall and the entrance foyer. The furniture and upholstery were completely renovated. New fire escapes and a lift to all the entrances to the boxes and gallery were built; the Theatre was also equipped with air conditioning.
The sides of the building (on the Donizetti monument side and Porta Nuova side) were completely renovated and housed the new offices, dressing rooms and choir rooms. The side elevations were designed to ensure formal coherence between the volumes. Everything was adapted to meet current safety standards.
Restoration work on the Donizetti Theatre was suspended in November 2019 to welcome the public to the building site for the world premiere of the opera L’ange de Nisida which Donizetti had written for the Parisian Théâtre de la Renaissance (1839-1840), but which had never reached the stage.
The opera lived on in the Theatre, which was still a building site. The artists performed in the space of the stalls free of chairs, the chorus sang from the balconies, in the boxes and from a tribune mounted on the stage the audience listened.
Today the Donizetti Theatre is completely suitable for modern performances and large audiences.
