In fact, King Charles wished to give to endow his capital city with a grand house to replace the old and crumbling San Bartolomeo.

On March 4th, 1737 a contract was signed with architect Giovanni Antonio Medrano and with Angelo Carasale.
This contract was fulfilled with astonishing precision: as early as November 4th, 1737 - the king's nameday - San Carlo was inaugurated with Metastasio's opera Achille in Sciro, set into music by Domenico Sarro, who also conducted the orchestra, and with two ballets as intermezzos created by Gaetano Grossatesta.
The part of Achilles, as was usual at that time, was performed by a woman, Vittoria Tesi, known as the "Moretta" who sang along with primo soprano Anna Peruzzi, known as "la Parrucchierina", and tenor Angelo Amorevoli.

Now carefully restored to its former splendour, the San Carlo is the oldest working theatre in Europe (41 years older than Milano's Scala and 51 years older than Venice's Fenice) its regular seasons having only been interrupted once, in 1874 and 1875 - due to a lack of funds. Neither the 1816 fire nor the Second World War put a halt to its activity: after the 1816 fire the theatre was rebuilt in a mere six months and during the war a series of concerts for the armed forces was staged in lieu of operas.
The San Carlo shares with La Scala the record for the first Italian ballet school (1812) whilst its set design school opened as early as 1816.