Grand Master António Manoel de Vilhena ordered the Manoel Theatre in Valletta in 1731 and funded it as a public theatre. The infobox names Antonio Azzopardi and Francesco Zerafa as architects, and the text says Romano Carapecchia possibly designed it. Construction took about ten months, and the first performance, Maffei's Merope, was on January 9, 1732.
The plain facade is in the Mannerist style of Valletta. The interior is Rococo, with an oval auditorium, three tiers of wooden boxes with gold leaf and a pale blue trompe-l'oeil ceiling. Two water reservoirs beneath the floor aid the acoustics. The infobox gives 547 seats and the text 534.
Sir George Whitmore added a gallery and proscenium in 1812. The government of Malta expropriated the theatre in 1956, and it reopened in December 1960. It is a Grade I listed building.
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