The first public theatre in Cuneo came about in a highly unusual way. With 200 lire a year, the Municipal Council, in partnership with thirty-nine townspeople, rented the church annexed to the Monastery of the Cappuccini. In nine months, it renovated the premises, officially opening the theatre in December 1803 with a performance of opera. The inadequacy of the building and its reduced size forced the Municipal Council to renovate once again in 1828, and the results of this intervention were very surprising indeed. At the opening, on Christmas Eve 1828, the audience was left spellbound by the elegance of the liberty-style gilded stuccoes and the red velvet upholstery. In 1863, the famous actor from Cuneo, Giovanni Toselli, completed the construction of a second theatre, “Il Teatro dell’Estate” (the Summer Theatre), built to promote more popular forms of entertainment, especially in the summer. This theatre was later to be named the Teatro Toselli. For several years the fortunes of the two theatres entwined and, after the demolition of the Teatro Toselli in 1919, the old Teatro Civico was renamed “Civico Teatro Toselli”. Today, the exterior of the building features simple architectural rules and is flanked by the statue devoted to Giovanni Toselli.
