Teatro Colon
Today we visit the world famous Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires. You haven’t heard of it? You poor, poor uncultured soul. OK, I hadn’t heard of it either but hell - I thought Buenos Aires was in Brazil 2 months ago.
The Teatro Colon I have to say one of the highlights of my trip. It’s a huge opera house that hosts classical concerts and operas. There was no opera while I was there so I saw The Buenos Aires Symphony perform (a program of Beethoven and Mauler for those of you scoring at home). Built in 1908 and seating about 3000, this was the largest theatre in the southern hemisphere until the construction of the Opera House in Sydney in 1973 (OK, I looked that fact up).
Of the photos, the exterior shot is mine. I lifted the other photo from a website because I wasn’t allowed to take photos when I visited there (also, I forgot to pack my fish-eye lens).
This is one place I can say that the locals keep up to perfection. It really feels like you’ve stepped back a hundred years when you enter. The ushers are all old men in tuxedos. I was escorted into an old-fashioned elevator (caged and hand operated by another old chap) on the way to my boxed seat. I was lucky to get a last minute single ticket and it was a fantastic box seat for the huge sum of $13 US. Have I mentioned how cheap things are in BA?
Even the bar was spectacular (I only had one!). Very elegant. I counted about a 200 boxes (each with 5 seats) in the theatre. Those are the lights you see in the interior shot.
The exterior, by the way, is under renovation so it’s not the most flattering of pictures that I was able to take.
OK kids, that’s your bit of culture for the day (now you don’t have to watch PBS today).
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