Buenos Aires’ Teatro Colon, reopened its doors
May 25, 2010 – 11:17 pmBuenos Aires’ Teatro Colon, one of the world’s great opera houses, reopened its doors on Monday as part of Argentina’s bicentenary celebrations.
Thousands of people gathered in front of the building, where the second act of Puccini’s La Bohème and excerpts from Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake were broadcast on a large screen, while 2,700 guests viewed the performances inside.
The opera house had been closed for nearly four years for renovations.
The makeover cost about $100 million and ran two years over schedule. It included restoring the exterior, replacing some of the original flooring and chandeliers, and installing a natural air conditioning system.
Modelled on La Scala in Milan, the Argentine venue where Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Enrico Caruso loved to sing was inaugurated in 1908 after 20 years of construction and is renowned for its natural acoustics.
More than 1,000 artisans restored the French stained glass and other historic features.
Teatro Colon is a stage to both opera and ballet.
About Teatro Colon
The Teatro Colón (Columbus Theatre) is the main opera house in Buenos Aires, Argentina, considered one of the best five opera houses in the world. It was opened on the 25th of May, 1908 with Verdi’s Aïda. The theatre was closed for refurbishment from October 2006 to May 2010. It has already presented its program for the 2010 season, which started on the 24th of May.
The present theatre, the second with that name, opened on May 25th, 1908 after twenty years under construction, and was inaugurated with Verdi’s opera Aida by the Italian company directed by Luigi Mancinelli and tenor Amadeo Bassi, soprano Lucia Crestani (as Aida). The second performance was Hamlet with the great baryton Titta Ruffo During the inaugural season seventeen operas were performed with famous stars as Ruffo, Feodor Chaliapin as Mefistofele, Antonio Paoli as Otello, and the world premiere of Aurora by the Argentinean Hector Panizza (Ettore Panizza).
The auditorium is horseshoe-shaped, has 2,487 seats (slightly more than, say, the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England), standing room for 1,000 and a stage which is 20 m wide, 15 m high and 20 m deep. The acoustics are considered one of the best five acoustics in opera in the world.
The theatre is bounded by the extremely wide 9 de Julio Avenue (technically Cerrito Street), Libertad Street (the main entrance), Arturo Toscanini Street, and Tucumán Street[7]. It is in the heart of the city on a site once occupied by Ferrocarril Oeste’s Plaza Parque station.
Before the construction of the current Teatro Colón, opera performances were given in several theatres, of which the first Teatro Colón and the Teatro Opera were the most important. The principal company that performed at the Teatro Opera moved to the Teatro Colón in 1908. However, important companies also performed at the Teatro Politeama and the Teatro Coliseo which opened in 1907.
For many years Argentina was a prosperous country with a booming economy, and the Teatro Colón was visited by the foremost singers and opera companies of the time, who would sometimes go on to other cities including Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.
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SOURCES:
“Argentina’s Teatro Colon reopens”
May 25, 2010
cbc.ca
http://www.cbc.ca
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/artdesign/story/2010/05/25/argentina-opera-reopens-renovations.html
“Teatro Colón”
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teatro_Col%C3%B3n
