The Travel Chica

Live Simple. Consume Less. Experience More.

The Impressive Teatro Colon Opera House in Buenos Aires

By

When I visited Argentina for the first time in 2009 on a 2-week vacation, one of the major attractions in Buenos Aires was closed for renovations.

After 7 years of detailed restoration, Teatro Colon is now open to the public.  The tour is one of the top things to do in Buenos Aires.

The price was a bit much for a 1-hour tour, but I had to see it.

Photo of exterior of Teatro Colon
Cool art display in the park across the street from Teatro Colon.

It was worth it. 

Not only is the architecture and decoration amazing, the guide did a great job sharing the history of this famous opera house and how it fit into the culture and lifestyle of the Portenos.  Yet another example of a great tour guide in Buenos Aires.

He had just enough cheese-ball jokes to make the historical facts entertaining yet not annoying.

Cool Facts about Teatro Colon

Why it was built.

The opera house was built from 1888-1908.  At the time, Argentina’s economy was 8th in the world, and they wanted to show their awesomeness (my words, not the guide’s).

Photo of atrium

Photo of stairwell details

How it was built and decorated.

Everything had to be brought over from Europe.

There is a Hall of Busts paying tribute to the greatest opera composers of the time.

There is a room called The Golden Lounge that is 120% French.  It is designed to replicate the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles.  The ceiling adornments are 24k gold.  This was the room where the highest classes of society went to see and be seen.

Note:  There are certain areas where they do no let you take photos, and these two rooms fall into that category.  As much as it killed me to not document every single thing I saw with my camera, I decided to not be “that girl sneaking photos.”

You will just have to trust me… very cool!

What it meant to society.

It was built by Italian immigrants.  And those same immigrants also patronized Teatro Colon with the wealthy members of society.

While the opera was available to everyone, the social classes were separated within the building.  There were separate entrances, separating seating areas, and separate rooms for mingling (like The Golden Lounge).

How it was renovated.

From 2003-2010, Argentina spent US$100 million, the most the country has ever spent on a restoration project.

People had been smoking in the opera house for 100 years, so a lot of detail work had to be done.  Every single room was touched. 

Each piece of stained glass was removed and cleaned.

All fabrics had to be replaced with fire-retardant materials.  But they had to be careful to not impact the acoustics and tested each piece of fabric.

Teatro Colon has the best acoustics in the entire world.

Our guide told us there was a study/ survey done, and Teatro Colon took the #1 spot.  There are no microphones used by the musicians or singers.  That is quite impressive.

But he also shared that the brilliant acoustics is mostly luck because there are so many factors that impact the sound.

Photo of Teatro Colon

 

So that crazy, ginormous thing in the ceiling actually can be lowered. 

Musicians can play from inside it.  Seriously!!

 

Photo of Teatro Colon

Photo of Teatro Colon

The view from “the best seat in the house.”

Photo of Teatro Colon from the best seat in the house

Check it out!

For non-residents, tickets are 60 pesos (US $14).  They have multiple tours in English and Spanish every day.  You can book online, however, their website is not exactly user-friendly, and I discovered that they do not actually make all tickets available online.  I just showed up and bought my ticket.   However, if you are visiting during the busy season, try to get them in advance.

Comments

  7. So glad to see these photos Steph! All I remember is a ton of construction on the whole block…happy it is finished and you got to enjoy it:)

  12. Lovely lovely lovely! I’ve yet to do an opera house tour but really want to do one. I did manage to watch an opera performance at Teatro Alla Scala in Milano last June … and it was wonderful. Sigh, if only I was rich … I’d go to all the opera houses in the world.
    Cheryl recently posted..Where to Eat in Szczecin, Poland.

  15. Reading your article reminds me of the Sydney Opera House. Although the Sydney Opera House is from the modern era compared to the Teatro Colon’s late 19th, both strike me as beautiful and inspiring examples of opera house architecture.

    Although we don’t have an opera house of this stature in Melbourne, we do have several theatres like Her Majesties, the Regent and one other whose name escapes me. They are fully renovated and are still home to world famous plays to this very day.

    Melbourne tends to attract the bulk of the plays and operas in Australia to its venues. The public flock to them and the state government goes out of its way to attract the Australian premieres ahead of Sydney. It’s part of a rivalry that goes right back to the days when Melbourne was first founded in the 1830s.

      • The rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne is quite intense. Before Australia became a federation in 1901 then colonies of New South Wales and Victoria were fighting it out over who was going to host the capital city. One city wasn’t going to agree to federation if the other city became the capital. They eventually settled on Melbourne as being the city to host the first federal parliament. Melbourne was made the provisional capital whilst some land from New South Wales annexed to make the Australian Capital Territory and over the course of about 20 or so years the new capital of Canberra was built from scratch and then all the federal government and it’s departments were relocated there in one big move. You could say that technically both of the states won but both of the states lost also.

  18. I looove the dramatic theater shots!! They are so exciting. I love live theater. We have an arts center opening in Vegas soon, and I think it’s going to change our community. The architecture is magnificent. But of course without the history of Buenos Aires’!
    Abby recently posted..Ultimate Weekend Packing Guide

  19. Ahhh! I remember studying this building’s architecture in university, and then when I arrived in Buenos Aires 2 years ago, the place was closed for renovations! Such a bummer!!! It looks marvelous!
    Audrey recently posted..The Markets of India

  22. From reading your post, it seems you’ve taken the brighter view of the restoration process.

    Unfortunately, it was much more dedicated to a electoral façade by the city’s major, than to really bring back to life the Teatro to its previous glory; as many things were ill conceived (the new wood floor was too hard and actually broke the ankles of the ballet… pieces of the original one were given as gifts by the contractors) or even destroyed (as happened the museum’s scores or the original sets); while attemting to lay off over 60 in-house artistic workers.

    Just so you have the whole picture: all that glitters…

    (You can practice your read spanish with this source: http://habituesdelteatrocolon.wordpress.com/ )

  26. I attended a ballet in Teatro Colon when I was studying abroad there 6 months ago! I was so happy to see that they have events other than opera, because like you said, it’s not really my thing either. It was beautiful, and the accompanying orchestra was fantastic too. We sat in the second balcony for less than $US 10. You should go!

Shares