Teatro Regio di Parma
Teatro Regio di Parma features on the Gingerguide audio walk through Parma. Give it roughly ~60 min: enough to look, hear a two to three minute story on the spot, and ask the AI guide whatever the story leaves open.
- Type theater
- Suggested visit ~60 min
- Parma Parma guide
About Teatro Regio di Parma
The Teatro Regio di Parma, inaugurated in 1829, is one of Italy's great opera houses, celebrated for its exceptionally demanding Parma audience (the loggionisti) whose vocal and exacting standards have terrified and inspired generations of singers, and home to the prestigious annual Festival Verdi.
The Teatro Regio di Parma was inaugurated on 16 May 1829 with a performance of Bellini's Zaira, commissioned by Marie Louise of Austria, Duchess of Parma (the former wife of Napoleon Bonaparte who had been given the Duchy of Parma as a life grant by the Congress of Vienna). The theatre was designed by Nicola Bettoli in a classical neoclassical style and holds approximately 1,400 spectators. It is the home of the annual Festival Verdi, a prestigious opera festival dedicated to the works of Giuseppe Verdi, who was born in the Parma province, held each autumn since 2001. The theatre is particularly celebrated for the legendary severity of its Parma audience: opera lovers who occupy the upper gallery (the loggione) and whose vocal displeasure, expressed in 'buare', the Parma term for booing, has reduced many great singers to tears and whose approval is regarded as one of the most coveted accolades in opera. The standard required to satisfy a Parma loggionista is considered among the highest in the world of opera.
Did you know? Parma's opera audience is so famously demanding that the term 'getting the Parma treatment' describes a particularly harsh audience reception, singers who have been 'buaed' (booed) off the stage of the Teatro Regio include some of the most celebrated names in 20th-century opera, including at least one internationally famous tenor who has been reported to have wept backstage after a Parma reception.
How long is a visit to Teatro Regio di Parma?
Set aside roughly ~60 min for Teatro Regio di Parma. That covers a good look and the narrated story, and because you set the pace you can always stay on.
Is Teatro Regio di Parma worth your time?
Teatro Regio di Parma is among the 20 narrated highlights the Gingerguide team chose for Parma, so it is worth a look. Hear the story for the context, then ask the AI guide for anything more.
Nearby stops in Parma
Hear the story of Teatro Regio di Parma
Preview the Parma tour free in the Gingerguide app.