The neoclassical Della Società City Theater, designed by architect Giuseppe Bovara, was inaugurated on October 23, 1844, with a performance of Gaetano Donizetti’s opera Anna Bolena. The building itself was commissioned by a handful of aristocratic and upper-class families from Lecco, but was immediately opened to the general public, as the addition of the gallery section bears witness to. Indeed, the gallery was built upon request of "the Society for the construction of a theater offering comfort and economic convenience for that class of the population so that they may attend public performances rather than spend their nights roaming about taverns."
Today’s Teatro Della Società is an expanded and renovated version of the original theater. Over the years, restructuring efforts have included: the 1884 addition of the left wing; restoration, with the elimination of the cafè veranda and the demolition of the apse, completed in 1969; Orlando Sora’s 1979 fresco on the vaulted ceiling; technological upgrading over the course of the 1980s and 1990s.
Since 1986 the theater has been run directly by the City of Lecco, through the Municipal Department of Education, Culture, Sport and Free Time. The Teatro Della Società has been known for its broad range of entertainment offerings, which include plays, symphonic concerts, family performances, opera and operetta, the theater and music of the region of Lombardia, jazz and folk music, experimental theater and theater workshops.