It is located in the central Piazza Ruggero Settimo and represents the second most important theatre of the city after the Teatro Massimo.

The theatre would have to be built on the border of the monumental structure of Palermo, as an ideal point of reference of the city's expansion.

At that time dates back the official opening in the presence of King Umberto I of Italy and of Queen Margherita.

This quadriga depicts the "Triumph of Apollo and Euterpe" flanked by two statues of knights on horseback, representation of the "Olympic Games", work of Benedetto Civiletti.

[1] On both sides of the entrance there are commemorative plaques recording the epigraphs dictated by the historian Isidoro La Lumia.

A rich polychrome decoration, both within and outside the theatre, was made by eminent local painters like Nicolò Giannone, Luigi Di Giovanni, Michele Corteggiani, Giuseppe Enea, Rocco Lentini, Enrico Cavallaro, Carmelo Giarrizzo, Francesco Padovano, Giovanni Nicolini and Gustavo Mancinelli.