In the 18th century, operas and plays were already being performed in the town of Maó.
By 1829, opera was so strongly rooted and popular in the theatre that this building, constructed 10 years before, was not large enough to house the new productions coming from Italy.
Giovanni Palagi was the architect of the building project for the new theatre. It was inaugurated on the 15th December 1829, with capacity for 1,000 people.