National Theatre of Panama, Opera house and cultural monument in Panama City, Panama.

The National Theatre of Panama is a neoclassical opera house whose facade has six crowned arcades, with statues of the muses of letters and music flanking the entrance and six relief medallions honouring Wagner, Shakespeare, Molière, Rossini, Cervantes and Lope de Vega. Inside, the horseshoe auditorium seats 853 people across an amphitheatre, stalls, two balcony levels, an orchestra pit and a gallery, under a ceiling mural by Roberto Lewis.

The theatre was ordered by Act 52 of 20 May 1904 under President Manuel Amador Guerrero and designed by Italian architect Genaro Ruggieri in the style of an Italian opera house. It opened on 1 October 1908, the day José Domingo de Obaldía took office as Panama's second president. Its first artistic performance came weeks later with Verdi's Aida, staged by the Lombardi Opera Company, which arrived aboard the steamer Parismina from Guatemala. The site had belonged to the Concepción convent, built in 1673; the order was expelled in 1862 and the abandoned building was demolished at the start of the 20th century.

The ceiling mural is by Panamanian painter Roberto Lewis, who also painted the works in the Palacio de las Garzas, the presidential palace. The theatre's opening performance was Verdi's Aida, given by the Lombardi Opera Company, which arrived by steamer from Guatemala with its full cast.

The theatre stands in the Casco Antiguo, beside the Church of San Francisco and across from Plaza Bolívar, so it can be reached on foot from the surrounding historic streets. The entrance is through the three arched doorways under the metal canopy on the main facade.

The theatre and the neighbouring National Palace share the cross-shaped building raised on the plot of the Concepción convent, founded in 1673 when the city moved to its present site. The convent garden escaped the 1756 fire that damaged much of the city, and the nuns were expelled in 1862.