Parma’s Teatro Regio was born at the initiative of Duchess Maria Luigia, who considered the Farnese theater too modest to reflect the city’s aspirations. Thus it was that between 1821 and 1829, based on a design by Nicola Bettoli, the Teatro Ducale was built and inaugurated on May 16, 1829, with Zaira, specially composed by Bellini for the occasion.
The theater changed its name upon the death of Maria Luigia, first becoming the Teatro Reale under the Bourbons in 1849 and then taking on the final name of Teatro Regio in 1860. In 1868 the Teatro Regio was ceded to the City of Parma by the state, as it was considered an economically unsustainable luxury.
The facade of the theater is neoclassical in style, and is divided into four parts. The first part consists of an architraved portico, the second by five windows with triangular tympanums, and the third features a central window flanked by two bas-relief "hungers" made by Tommaso Bandini; finally, in the last part is a tympanum with a lyre and two ancient masks.
The foyer of the Teatro Regio, square in shape and with a lacunar ceiling supported by two rows of four columns, is currently used for small performances. The foyer vault has frescoes by Giovan Battista Azzi and Alessandro Cocchi, while the walls were decorated by Stanislao Campana.
The theater’s stalls, decorated by Girolamo Magnani, are elliptical in shape, and can be accessed either centrally from the foyer or laterally to reach the one hundred and twelve boxes of which it is composed. In the center of the latter is the dukes’ box. The gallery, on the other hand, presents independent access.
As for the decorations of the Teatro Regio, the work was entrusted to Giovan Battista Borghesi, who represented there the greatest playwrights such as Euripides, Seneca, Goldoni, Plautus, Aristophanes, Metastasio and Alfieri. The curtain, also painted by Borghesi, depicts the "Triumph of Wisdom" in honor of Maria Luigia’s rule.
