Restoration

The theatre has been brought into full compliance with fire safety regulations, including the installation of a new pump system to serve the sprinkler systems protecting the stage tower and the area beneath the stage.

One of the most complex projects was the painting Il Teatro della Vita (The Theatre of Life), created by Orlando Sora in 1979 to decorate the vaulted ceiling. This was executed over the layer of asbestos that had covered the original fresco.

ATS approved the project to remove the asbestos and strip the acrylic from the underside of the vault, but the procedure was extremely complex. Sora’s painting was divided into sections, with the pictorial elements stripped away before the asbestos was removed from the back of each section.

Once all the figurative elements had been removed, a specialised contractor carried out the complete asbestos removal from the soffit and extrados in a confined environment. After replacing certain compromised wooden elements of the cantinelle, a new Nervometal mesh was installed and a cocciopesto base was created.

The painting's iconographic elements were repositioned on the reconstructed substrate and the colour scheme, featuring the orange-peel effect characteristic of the original work on asbestos, was recreated from scratch. Thanks to this restoration, Orlando Sora’s Il Teatro della Vita is once again visible and completely free of asbestos.

The finishing work was carried out with the utmost respect for the theatre’s history, with the aim of conveying the structure’s artistic value and paying strict attention to the hall’s acoustics. This included the restoration of the window and door frames, the painting of the interior spaces and exterior facades, and the installation of oak plank flooring in the stalls and new carpeted flooring in the box corridor, box seats, and side entrance hallways leading to the stalls.

The discovery of nineteenth-century decorations. 

During the survey and stratigraphic analysis campaign commissioned by the municipal administration, previously unknown nineteenth-century decorations were discovered on the ceilings of the entrance and foyer, as well as on the walls.

Following consultation with the Provincial Superintendency of Fine Arts, a conservation and restoration project was initiated, enabling the public to admire this hidden masterpiece once again.

The historic curtain at the Teatro della Società is one of the theatre's treasures. Made up of several panels, it was painted in tempera by Andrea Mantegazza in 1844. It depicts Azzone Visconti entering the town of Lecco triumphantly.

The curtain was in poor condition at the start of the project, necessitating extensive restoration work and the installation of a new mechanised hoisting system to ensure its proper preservation during use.

The finishes on the boxes and doors have been restored to their original colour. This colour had been hidden beneath a layer of varnish, but was rediscovered during a survey and stratigraphic analysis commissioned by the municipal administration.

The theatre cafe, located on the left side of the building and closed since 2016, has undergone a major renovation. It now features an outdoor seating area with a wrought-iron frame, wooden decking, and glass walls along the perimeter, which restores a sense of shared social interaction to this gathering place.