An important cultural venue in Parma, this theatre with an attractive neo-Classical façade was built between 1821 and 1829 at the request of Empress Marie-Louise of Austria and was inaugurated with a performance of Bellini's opera Zaira. Inside the theatre, the beautiful white and gilded stucco decoration is the work of Girolamo Magnani (1853), while the magnificent curtain representing The Triumph of Minerva is by Giovan Battista Borghesi.