It is the main theatre of the city, built, from 1778 to 1781, under the spur of Perugia middle classes. It was commissioned to the architect from Perugia Alessio Lorenzini and it opened in 1781 with the name “Teatro del Verzaro”; only later it was entitled to the Peruginian musician Francesco Morlacchi (1774-1841).
It was renovated (1874) in its architecture by G. Calderini, its sculpture by R. Angeletti and F. Biscarini and its painting by F. Moretti, M. Tassi, N. Verga and L. Angeloni. M. Piervittori painted the curtain and the ceiling with a wide romantic painting inspired to local history, celebrating the city middle classes.
Since 1942 it belongs to the Municipality.
The first decoration in Neo – Classic style, lost due to several interventions, was by B. Orsini, who painted the ceiling with Apollo and the Muses, and the curtain with Alcinoo gardens, king of the Feaci people, and the games for Ulysses. C. Spiridione Mariotti painted the medals with Icarus sacrificing to Baccus, the Tragedy, the Comedy and the Pastoral Tale along with the sixteen cameos of the vault. G. Cappelli decorated the boxed parapets while P. F. Cocchi, V. Monotti and N. Giuli painted the chiaroscuro decorations. In 1813-14 the Theatre was newly decorated by the painter from Padua L. Tasca , who had also worked for the Pavone Theatre.
For the rest of the decorations F. Moretti, M. Tassi, N. Verga and L. Angeloni painted particulars. The Futurist painter M. Piervittori painted the ceiling with a new allegory “La fama che addita ai perugini illustri il tempio di Minerva” (Fame pointing to famous people of Perugia the Minerva Temple), celebration of illustrious citizens in the different arts. In the ovals and circles of the vault, Piervittori painted allegories of Poetry and Music, Tragedy and Comedy with Neo-Baroque trompe-l’oeile elements. He also painted the curtain with “Il ritorno in Perugia di Biordo Michelotti capo dei raspanti (borghesi) in Perugia 1398” (Bruno Michelotti, captain of the bourgeois, coming back to Perugia in 1398), a rare romantic painting inspired to local history, self-congratulatory for the city middle classes.