On 20 April 1816 the Imperial Princess Marie Louise, Grand Duchess of Austria and former Empress of France, arrived in the city of Parma, Italy. The daughter of Francis I of Austria (1768-1835, reigned 1806-35) and Marie-Thsrese de Bourbon-Sicily,I Marie Louise (1791-1847) married Napoleon Bonaparte in April 1810 but left him in June 1814, as soon as the collapse of his empire appeared inevitable. Upon Napoleon's downfall and in accordance with the Treaty of Fontainebleau, Marie Louise was assigned to govern the north-central Italian provinces of Parma and Piacenza. Although the official city newspaper, the Gazzetta di Parma (7 June 1814), enthusiastically reported that on 6 June 1814 Her Majesty the Empress Maria Luigia (as the Italians called her) had become the sovereign of the region, in truth the matter of her governance had not yet been fully resolved, for Maria Luisa, Duchess of Lucca, wished to claim the area for her son.2 Finally, one year later, on 9 June 1815, the Congress of Vienna made a final decision, declaring Maria Luigia Duchess of Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla.3 The decision was to have an enduring positive impact on the social, economic, and cultural life of the provinces. During her reign, with the assistance of her ministers, especially Count Adam Neipperg (1775/6-1829, who became her second husband), Maria Luigia restored the city's cultural life. In the early years of her governance (primarily before the death of Neipperg),4 humanitarian, educational, and artistic endeavors flourished, above all in Parma, where the Duchess made her official home. In her efforts to enrich the culture of the city, music played a prominent role: at court, at church, in the theater, in the streets, at ceremonies and celebrations of every sort in every season, nary an occasion passed without musical performance. The effects of the Austrian ruler and her cabinet on the musical culture