Teatro Colón: the perfect sound at the edge of the world

Stop for a second. Look at this facade. Three floors. Italian Renaissance style. White Carrara marble. Grey granite brought from Europe. Handcrafted wrought iron. All imported. In 1889, Buenos Aires had a dream. To be Paris. Not metaphorically. Literally. The porteno elite wanted a capital that could compete with the great cities of the world. And for that they needed a theater. Not just any theater. The best in the world. Construction started that year. It lasted 21 years. Three presidents came and went. Three architects came and went. The first two died before seeing it f…

Let's walk to the side of the building. I'll tell you about the three men who tried to build this. The first: Francesco Tamburini. Italian architect. He won the competition in 1889. He led the construction for two years. He died in 1891. Without seeing it finished. The second: Vittorio Meano. Also Italian. He took over Tamburini's project and continued it for thirteen years. He died in 1904 in a violent crime. He didn't see it finished either. The third: Jules Dormal. Belgian. He arrived at the project without having started it. He had to respect everything his predecessors had…

From this side the building looks different. Even more imposing. Because from Avenida 9 de Julio, the scale changes. The avenue is one hundred and forty meters wide. And Teatro Colon is ninety meters long. Those proportions are not seen every day. The building occupies almost an entire city block. Walking around its different facades you can see three distinct architectural styles. The Libertad facade: Italian Renaissance. This lateral side: Beaux-Arts elements. A building that absorbs European influences and blends them without asking permission. What also catches your eye from her…

Turn around. Look at the building from here. This is the only distance from which you can see the full ensemble. The main facade with its columns. The central dome. Three floors of windows. The detail of the frieze. This plaza was not designed by chance. It was created specifically to give perspective to the theater. So people could step back and see it whole. In European cities this is common practice. In Buenos Aires in 1908, it was a radical architectural decision. Demolish half a block just for a view. And it works. From here the theater seems to float above the city. Plaza …

Come in. First, what's under your feet. Carrara marble. The same used in the great palaces of Europe. Brought from Italy by ship in the early 20th century. Now look at the staircases. Two symmetrical ramps rising to the first floor. Iron balustrades with gold ornaments. The ceilings are more than twelve meters high. And the crystal chandeliers hanging there... each one weighs more than a ton. This vestibule was designed for a specific purpose. For people to see each other. In 19th century opera, going to the theater was a social act. The boxes weren't just for listening. They we…

Here it is. The Hall. Don't call it "the auditorium". Here it's called "la Sala". Two thousand four hundred and seventy-eight seats. Seven tiers of capacity. Seventy-seven boxes. Four balconies. A pit gallery. An upper gallery. Orchestra level. This layout follows the model of the great European opera houses. The scale is overwhelming. But there's something more. The central chandelier. Nine hundred light bulbs. Bohemian crystals. Weighs seven tons. It rises and descends through the ceiling for maintenance. Imagine the scene when someone first turned it on. The hall had ele…

Look up. That painting on the dome. It's by Raul Soldi. Argentine painter. He painted it in 1966. He was seventy years old. It took him four years to complete it. Before Soldi, the dome had different decoration. More academic. Darker. Soldi changed everything. He brought in light. Floating figures. Pastel colors that on that ceiling look almost opalescent. The painting represents the Muses of the performing arts. Dance, music, singing, poetry. All looking downward. Toward the stage. Toward you. There is a detail very few notice. Soldi painted himself into the work. He is a…

Look at the shape of this hall. It's not a rectangle. It's a horseshoe. More precisely: a truncated horseshoe. That shape is not aesthetic. It's science. The acoustics of Teatro Colon are considered perfect by musicians worldwide. There are no dead spots. No echoes. Sound reaches every corner with the same clarity. Whether you're in the orchestra, the fifth floor, or the last box. You hear it equally. The explanation is in the surfaces. The wooden floor absorbs bass frequencies. The velvet seats dampen high frequencies. And the curved shape of the balconies distributes sound in …

What you see from outside is less than half of what exists. Below your feet there are seventy thousand square meters of workshops. Yes. Seventy thousand. It's the largest workshop complex in the world in an opera house. Down there operates a city within the city. The costume room holds more than thirty thousand catalogued costumes. The shoe workshop handcrafts every pair of shoes for every production. The tailor shop sews stage costumes from scratch. The set design department builds scenery sometimes two or three stories high. The wig workshop makes each wig by hand. Every productio…

One last stop. A review of those who were here. Enrico Caruso sang here in 1899 and in 1903. He was told the acoustics were perfect. He replied that it sounded better than La Scala in Milan. Arturo Toscanini conducted here in several seasons. Gustav Mahler came in 1906. Maria Callas performed here in 1949. At the peak of her career. What today is called "La Divina" sang on this stage. Rudolf Nureyev danced here. Mirella Freni. Luciano Pavarotti. Daniel Barenboim conducted here for the first time at age sixteen. Sixteen. Buenos Aires was not the end of the world for these artists…