In last month’s issue we looked at the medieval religious buildings in Parma and took a virtual tour of the Baptistery and Duomo. This month, we explore some of the secular masterpieces to be found in this city that is too often overlooked by tourists focused on the triumvirate of Rome, Venice and Florence.

Palazzo della Pilotta
The Pilotta Palace is a large complex that houses galleries and art collections, named after the pelota handball game that was played in one of the courtyards. The National Gallery is one of Italy’s most important galleries with works of El Greco, Van Dyck, Beato Angelico, Canaletto and other notables, including entire sections devoted to Parmigianino and Correggio, two of the most prominent artists of Parma’s 16th century. Also located here is the Palatine Library, founded by Filippo di Borbone, the Library now houses over 700,000 volumes. The Bodoni Museum is located on the top floor of the palace and is entirely dedicated to Giambattista Bodoni’s typographical work and houses type blocks, punches, master copies, original dies, manuscripts and tools for a total amount of 80,000 pieces. Perhaps the most valuable work located here is the Greek version of the Book of Iliad, dating to 1808.

The real gem however is the 17th century wooden Teatro Farnese.

Teatro Farnese
On the first floor of the Palazzo della Pilotta , lies the largest baroque theater existing inside a building, the beautiful Teatro Farnese, built in 1618 by the architect Giovanni Battista Aleotti (1546-1636), known as ‘Argenta’. It was built for the Duke Ranuccio I Farnese, who wanted to welcome Cosimo de’ Medici with great celebrations, hoping to consolidate the marriage alliance between Odoardo Farnese and Margherita de’ Medici, which was finally celebrated in 1628.

Famous before it even opened, the new theater mesmerized 17th century aristocratic Europe on opening night with a six-hour performance of ‘Mercury and Mars’ with the music of Monteverdi. The high note was a naval battle that had the stalls completely flooded for a clash that included near life-sized battleships. It was used only nine times in the next 104 years. The cost and complexity of the scenery and staging limited the theater’s use to mostly celebrations of royal marriages. After a performance in 1732, the theater was left to decay until 1913, when it was reopened for the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of Verdi’s birth. A bomb destroyed it during WWII and restoration work was completed in 1962, but not to the original colors and the original trompe l’oeuil effect was lost.

The Teatro Farnese was the first theater designed for the use of movable scenery and the first to use the proscenium arch, a curved or rectangular frame enclosing the stage and now found in many modern theaters. The wooden structure was originally painted to mimic more precious materials like marble and bronze, and it was decorated with plaster statues, imitating white marble. The theater still retains many portions of the original frescoes, painted by various masters, including Malosso and Lionello Spada.

Teatro Regio
One of the most famous opera houses in the world, the neo-classical Teatro Regio (Royal Theater), was commissioned by Maria Luigia, second wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, and built in 1829 by Nicola Bettoli. It was inaugurated in 1829 with the opera Zaira, composed for the occasion by Vincenzo Bellini. Later, Verdi dedicated the opera I Lombardi to Duchess Maria Luigia in 1843.

The hall is rich with gold and stucco, while four tiers of boxes and a gallery border the U-shaped theater. From the hall are stairs leading to the room of Ridotto, vast and elegant with its frescos by Azzi and Cocchi. Overlooking the room are the women’s galleries. In the main room hangs a curtain painted with tempera by Borghesi, who also did the painting on the ceiling.

The theater hosts an important opera season (September to May) and the annual Verdi Opera Festival (July to October) and its archives house all correspondence and artwork relating to the theater.

Paganini Auditorium
Named after Niccolo Paganini, considered the greatest violin virtuoso of all time, the Paganini Auditorium was built on the site of an old sugar factory and converted in late 2001 by world-renowned architect Renzo Piano, who left the building’s original brick exterior untouched. It was inaugurated with a concert of the Scala Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Muti. The project cost 14 million Euro and was funded by the Italian government, Parma city council and local pasta multinational Barilla.