Madrid Opera House poster. Royal Opera House in Madrid
Royal Opera theatre in Madrid (Madrid, Spain) - repertoire, ticket prices, address, phone numbers, official website.
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The Royal Opera House (Teatro Real) is the main opera house in Madrid and one of the most popular in Spain, as well as one of the symbols of the city. His productions are often attended The Royal Family, however, tickets are quite affordable for everyone. The theater is located on Eastern Square, directly opposite Royal Palace.
A little history
The Royal Opera House was built in 1850 by order of Queen Elizabeth II. She really wanted to royal court had its own theater, so she issued a decree so that the construction process would be accelerated, and the theater would be ready in exactly 6 months.
Architects Don Antonio Lopez Aguado and Don Custodio Moreno coped with their task perfectly and within six months they built a hexagonal building with a facade on the Eastern Square. The theater was built in the image and likeness of other popular European theaters: San Carlo in Naples and La Scala in Milan. In addition to the theater arena, the building includes dance halls, salons, a café-pastry shop, an orchestra and a cloakroom.
The opening of the theater took place on October 10, 1850, the birthday of Queen Isabella II. On this day, the first opera was staged on the stage of the theater - Donizetti’s “The Favorite” (La favorita).
The theater building was rebuilt several times, so there is no single architectural style it's not in it. It first required repairs when it nearly collapsed during the construction of the Madrid metro in 1925. 40 years later, the theater was rebuilt into a concert hall, where the National Orchestra of Spain then performed. In 1969, the popular Eurovision Song Contest was held here, and the hall was decorated with works by Salvador Dali. Architect Flores Urdanpileta insisted that the concert hall be decorated in a pharaonic style, but there was no money for such large-scale reconstruction there wasn't enough, so we had to settle for a simple restoration.
The next one (and on this moment the last) reconstruction took place in 1997, after which the theater again became an opera house and was inaugurated with the premiere of the opera modern composer Garcia Abrilla.
Opera House today
Since 1997, the Royal Opera House has remained virtually unchanged. Its external and interior decoration- This is a combination of several architectural styles at once. The hall seats 1854 spectators, of which 28 VIP boxes and one two-tier royal box with decorative elements made of natural gold.
Despite the fact that this theater is one of the main city attractions, getting here is not difficult at all. Tickets for less popular performances can be purchased on the same day, and they will cost from 9 EUR. Tickets for popular operas and good places will cost more, but also not prohibitively: from 100 EUR. The acoustics in the hall are excellent, so the sound does not depend on the location.
Today the theater’s repertoire includes works by Verdi “Rigoletto”, “Aida” and “La Traviata”, Rossini - “ Barber of Seville", Wagner - "Lohengrin" and others. Concerts are also often held here popular artists: Sting, Pet Shop Boys, etc.
The theater has been on this site for a long time - since 1708. True, small. It was demolished in 1735 and a new, more luxurious theater was built. But the construction was unsuccessful: groundwater washed away the foundation. In 1816, the chief architect of Madrid, Antonio Lopez Aguado, on behalf of the City Hall of Madrid, began the design of the future Royal Theater. But for various reasons, construction was delayed and the theater was opened only in November 1850, just in time for the name day of Queen Isabella II, who was considered a big fan opera art.
Directly opposite the Royal Palace in Madrid, on the Plaza de Oriente, there is the building of the Royal Theater (Teatro Real), a solid structure, which also goes 24 meters underground.
The first performance that was shown on new stage, became Donizetti's "Favourite". It seemed that the theater, which received a magnificent building, would develop, taking its rightful place among the opera houses of Europe, but politics intervened. Stormy political life did not leave room for the muses: parliament met in the building, gunpowder was stored in it, and even a barracks was set up.
Endless reconstructions that changed the architectural appearance of the building deprived it of any architectural style. In 1966 it housed the National Orchestra and Choir of Spain, but in 1977 the building was recognized historical monument, A Royal Theater once again became what it was originally intended to be - an opera theater.
The Royal Theater auditorium is decorated in red and gold and seats 1,746 people. The hall has 28 boxes on different floors, as well as a royal two-tier box. The hall and other rooms of the theater are decorated with valuable sculptures and paintings that belong to the national heritage of Spain.
The opulent foyer is adorned with paintings and opulent chandeliers and covered in custom-made rugs. There is a restaurant on the second floor, the ceiling of which reflects the night sky over the city. In the hall where the restaurant is now located, Queen Isabella II previously gave balls. There is also a cafe in the building on the sixth floor, with magnificent view to the Royal Palace.
New artistic director theater, Belgian Gerard Mortier, who previously headed the Paris Opera, believes that in the next few years the Royal Theater of Madrid will be able to take its rightful place among the best opera houses in Europe. “Madrid has one of the best theater buildings in the world,” says Mortier. – The theater is superbly equipped technically, which opens up scope for experimentation; the stage allows you to change the scenery in front of the audience, almost instantly. Both the hall and the stage are quite large, but retain a certain intimacy.” Mortier intends to widely cooperate with other leading theaters in Europe, including Bolshoi Theater Moscow.
Opera art in Spain has deep roots, and although the Iberian kingdom does not have a great tradition in terms of creating works of this genre, all its musical talent spanish people directed towards creating completely amazing art zarzuela, full of fiery rhythms and enchanting melodies, in terms of opera, content with the always popular operas of closely related Italians - the Spaniards have always had a sincere love for vocal art: It’s not for nothing that this land has given the world outstanding vocalists, perhaps as many as Italy. Add to this that the action of many operas takes place precisely on Iberian lands, and every significant city in Spain, as well as in the Apennines, necessarily has its own opera house - and the picture will be exhaustive: this southern country- no less hospitable home for opera than Italy, France or Germany.
Them more amazing fate capital's opera house, which does not fit into the logic of the above. The Royal Theater of Madrid, or Teatro Real, has a history perhaps unlike any other opera house in Europe.
Knowing the love of the Spaniards for opera, it is not surprising that this art has long lived at the royal court, and under one of the most significant queens, Isabella II, an impressive gray stone building was built on the square named after her, opposite the Royal Palace - the building Royal Opera. The theater existed in this capacity for three quarters of a century, famous singers of all nationalities toured on its stage, but primarily famous Italian and Spanish vocalists.
However, in 1925 the building was closed for reconstruction, which lasted... more than forty years. At first, finances were bad due to the onset of the Great Depression, then the revolution and Civil War did not allow us to remember the fate of great art, then the Second World War, in which Spain, although it did not participate, still lived in constant anticipation of the need to join it (as you know, Franco supported Hitler and Mussolini, and only his preserved neutrality allowed him to sit out his partygenosse at the pinnacle of power for a good thirty years). In 1966, the building was opened, but not as an opera house, but as a concert hall: the stern caudillo did not particularly favor the art of opera. Only in 1997 did Real regain its original status - the life of the opera house resumed.
Over the past decade and a half, Real Madrid has been actively earning a reputation as a capital opera stage. With the coming to power of the famous theatrical figure European scale of Gerard Mortier, the process of integration into the European opera space has only intensified. Mortier - supporter director's theater, but he is also the author of non-trivial programs on the Real Madrid stage, the initiator of an unworn repertoire and cooperation with other European opera companies. It was under Mortier that Russian music appeared on the Real Madrid playbill (today they play Boris Godunov, Iolanta, Lady Macbeth Mtsensk district"), it was under him that modern opera began to be performed here often. True, there are also costs - the mainstream repertoire at Real is not rich, especially the operas of Verdi and Puccini were unlucky: as if, despite the whole world, Mortier wants to develop Real differently, to follow untrodden paths...
The Royal Theater of Real is an opera and ballet theater and is considered one of the most important monuments in the city and cultural institutions in Europe.
It was built by order of King Ferdinand VII on the site of the old Peral Theatre. Due to a lack of funds, construction of the theater lasted from 1830 to 1850. Its construction was led by the Spanish architect Antonio Lopez Aguado, who gave the theater building a unique hexagonal shape. After the death of Antonio Lopez Aguado, the project was transferred to Teodoro Moreno.
The main façade of the theater faces Piazza de Oriente. Externally, the theater is a three-story gray building decorated with arches and columns. The second floor is reserved for guest rooms. In the interior design, made in best traditions XIX century, participated famous artists and decorators, including Eugenio Lucaa and Filastre Humanite-René, who designed the ceilings and curtains.
Royal Theater of Madrid
In 1818, the City Hall of Madrid commissioned the city's chief architect, Antonio López Aguado, to create a design for the future Royal Theater. Due to many troubles, the opening of the theater took place only on November 19, 1850, on the name day of Queen Isabella II, a great fan of opera. The honor of starting the theater's operatic history went to Donizetti's “The Favorite.” It seemed that the theater was destined for a long, brilliant destiny, but the turbulent political life of Spain drove the muses out of these walls for a long time. The Temple of Music had to be a place for parliamentary meetings, a gunpowder warehouse and even a barracks. But nothing could prevent the theater from taking a prominent place on the Olympus of European opera houses.
Because the theater has been endlessly rebuilt, it does not have a single architectural style. In 1966, after restoration, the Royal Theater opened as concert hall National Orchestra and the choir of Spain, and then the orchestra and choir of the Spanish Radio and Television. In 1977 the building was declared a historical monument and the theater was returned to its original purpose, and since 1997 the Royal Theater has once again become what its creators intended - a temple to opera.
The theater's auditorium seats up to 1,854 people; it has 28 boxes on different floors and a two-tier royal box. The four rooms reserved for the public are decorated with rare and valuable paintings and sculptures that make up National treasure Spain.