Construction (1889-1908)
The construction of the current Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires was the initiative of the Italian businessman Angelo Ferrari (1831-1897), who was in turn the tenant of the old Teatro Colón between 1869 and 1888.[2].
The Government of the City of Buenos Aires granted land for the construction of the theater. On October 20, 1888, the National Congress approved Law 2381 calling for public bidding to build a new building for the Colón Theater. The original place to build the theater was a block at the intersection of Rivadavia and Entre Ríos avenues but, as this was finally destined for the future Palace of the National Congress, the block occupied by the Parque del Ferrocarril del Oeste Station, in front of the current Plaza Lavalle, was purchased. Until its inauguration twenty years later, the work would be directed successively by three engineers (Tamburini, Meano and Dormal) and carried out by the company Pellizzari and Armellini, after an eventful process, in which many of its protagonists died or retired.
The tender was held in 1889, and the winner was the opera musician and entrepreneur Ferrari, who presented a project by the Italian architect and engineer Francesco Tamburini (1846-1890). On May 25, 1890, the foundation stone was laid, but that same year Tamburini died, aged just 44.[3].
The direction of the work then passed to the Italian architect Vittorio Meano (1860-1904) who had been in charge of directing Tamburini's studio. Meano made substantial modifications to Tamburini's original design, always respecting the "Italian curve" shape adopted for the room, which established a social hierarchy of the spectators.[4] On September 10, 1892 Meano obtained municipal approval of the plans and shortly after published a report detailing the work. Ferrari hired the construction company of the Italians Ítalo Armellini") and Francisco Pellizzari to carry out the work.[4] Pellizari had immigrated in 1886 and Armellini in 1891.[5].
In 1894, less than two years after the work began, the Ferrari company that had won the tender went bankrupt, paralyzing the works for eight years. In 1897, the National Congress provided by law 3474 that the Municipality of Buenos Aires be responsible for the tender won by the failed Ferrari company. In 1899 the Municipality established a new construction project and selected the design presented by Meano. In 1900 the Municipality called for a tender to choose the construction company, which was won in 1902 by Pellizzari and Armellini, always under the direction of the engineer Meano.[6] Among the contracts of the construction company is that of the sculptor Luis Trinchero to make the four caryatids of the side balconies on the front of the building, the busts of Mozart, Bellini, Bizet, Beethoven, Gounod, Rossini, Verdi and Wagner, the crowning of the avantscène boxes and in general the low and high reliefs "Relief (art)") of the theater.[6].
On May 16, 1904, a tender was called to build the stage and outbuildings. A few days later, on June 1, engineer Meano, aged just 44, was murdered by two bullets, in circumstances apparently related to his emotional life, although Lisandro de la Torre denounced that the murder was caused by acts of corruption in the work of the National Congress.[7].
Upon Meano's death, the Municipality entrusted the direction of the work on an honorary basis to the Belgian engineer Julio Dormal, who depended on the municipality and who would take charge in February 1905. Dormal had serious disagreements with the work that Meano had done, especially in terms of safety. Historian Amalia Pellizzari, granddaughter of the builder, says that "Dormal would have wanted to demolish everything and start construction from scratch, as certain members of the Municipal Commission and Eng. Juan A. Buschiazzo had once proposed in 1900. But this is now impossible. The theater is almost finished."[8] Dormal nevertheless made major changes to the plans, eliminating premises and adding the large glass marquee on Libertad Street.[9] He also ordered that the mobile stalls be demolished and rebuilt, with the company Pellizzari and Armellini having to bear the cost.[9].
In 1905, the Municipality resolved the tender for the stage and all the adjoining rooms, also attributing it to the company Pellizzari and Armellini, together with Eliso Marco -first machinist of the Colón- and the engineers B. Laurel and A. Ortúzar, signing the contract on May 10 of that year.[10].
In 1906, the new construction of the mobile stalls began under the direction of engineer Carlos Moretti.[10] The decisions of engineer Dormal led to the establishment of a terrible relationship with the builders Ítalo Armellini and Francisco Pellizzari, which would finally lead to Armellini withdrawing from the work on April 11, 1907 "with his nervous system exhausted."[10] Upon Armellini's retirement, construction was left in charge. by Francisco Pellizzari, who built the stage, the rooms and the mobile stalls, finishing the work on February 28, 1908,[11] almost three months before the inauguration.
After twenty years of work and payment from the Municipality to the construction company in 1908, Pellizzari sued the State for higher unpaid expenses, but the lawsuit was rejected because it had expired "Prescription (right)") (the deadline to sue had expired).[11].
Part of the project was financed by selling subscriptions to the most expensive and prestigious boxes – and practically "in perpetuity" – to the patrician families of the country, which, however, were not enough to cover even one seventh of the construction costs. Consequently, Ferrari's influence waned and a committee appointed by the municipality began to make artistic decisions regarding budget allocations, hiring and repertoire, eventually reorganizing the structure of the seasons.
In 1906, a municipal decree of great importance was published by which the city government was given the power to distribute and assign localities, and take them away from businessmen and the Buenos Aires elite. Tickets had to go through a municipal office where they were marked and numbered before they went on sale. No ticket could be sold without that municipal seal or outside the theater box office.[12].
The successive architects reconciled in their design styles as dissimilar as the Attic-Greek, which predominates on the exterior and, in the words of Meano, "the general characters of the Italian Renaissance, the good distribution and solidity typical of German architecture, and the grace, variety and bizarre ornamentation associated with French architecture", until forming an admirable example of the eclectic style of the century. Although Tamburini's original project was clearly Second Empire, greatly influenced by the Garnier Opera, Meano changed it to the Italianate style and Dormal gave it art nouveau details. Strictly speaking, the urban importance of the Colón exceeded the framework of a performance hall to appear, along with the Congress Palace and the Casa Rosada, among the most representative historical buildings of the City of Buenos Aires.
The building was finally inaugurated on May 25, 1908 with "Aida", by Giuseppe Verdi, with Lucia Crestani and Amedeo Bassi in the main roles.
Artistic history
Until 1925, the Teatro Colón was managed by private companies that acquired the concession from the Municipality of Buenos Aires. In that period, the performance of Arturo Toscanini, who directed the theater orchestra during 1912, stood out. Toscanini's temperament would cause several scandals due to his public fights with other artists, going so far as to give the audience a shout-out, dissatisfied with the applause the singer received. Toscanini would return to conduct the Colón orchestra in 1941.[13].
Coinciding with the election of the first democratic president in 1916, Hipólito Yrigoyen, the private management system entered into crisis. The Teatro Colón then had to adapt to a world in which the rules had changed, with the conquest of democracy and the population's massive access to recreation and culture.
In 1925 the State assumed responsibility for financing, creating stable artistic bodies such as the Orchestra, the Choir and the Ballet and leaving management in charge of private concession companies.
In 1931, after the coup d'état that overthrew the constitutional government of Hipólito Yrigoyen, the theater was municipalized and during the 1930s it began to almost reign alone in the market it addressed. That same year, 1931, Libertad Lamarque won an important tango competition at the Colón theater where the leading figures of the time participated. Libertad wins the title of The Queen of Tango, which will accompany her throughout her long artistic career. From 1933 and until the end of the Infamous Decade, the musician Juan José Castro (1933-1943) served as director of the theater. International casts were increasingly difficult to hire due to the war, which produced dissimilar results depending on the case. For Columbus, it was the increase in national artists who, coming from diverse origins, eliminated distortions typical of the Italian tradition, which imposed that language for all types of operas, a custom that took a long time to eradicate in the Choir. At that time, the agendas and caches of international singers were not as demanding as those of today. The artistic directors traveled to Europe and the United States to engage the artists, who were only formally hired two or three months in advance and with the approved budget; custom that current circumstances make economically and practically unviable.
In 1936 Igor Stravinsky performed Perséphone at the Teatro Colón, the first time that the work was directed by himself and translated into Spanish. The translation was done by Jorge Luis Borges and Victoria Ocampo was the narrator. These performances would make Stravinsky a cult musician in Argentina.[14].
In 1937, the Teatro Colón Opera School was created, later called the Instituto Superior de Arte del Teatro Colón, following a proposal by Alberto Ginastera, Enrique Sivieri and Michel Borovsky.
Upon assuming Peronism in 1946, Colón promoted a policy of access for the popular sectors to the theater, by organizing performances through unions and opening up to popular music artists, mainly tango, such as Mariano Mores, Francisco Canaro, Juan D'Arienzo, Edmundo Rivero, but also from other aspects such as Ariel Ramírez and Miguel de Molina.[15] Colón's openness to popular music was questioned by conservative groups. and left without effect after the coup d'état of 1955 "Revolución Libertadora (Argentina)")[16] and only in 1964 was the show presented, with Troilo as the central figure and the participation, among others, of Edmundo Rivero (voice), Enrique Mario Francini (violin), Horacio Salgán (iao), Enrique Díaz (double bass). Berlingieri (piano), Ciríaco Ortiz and Roberto Grela (guitar).
Restoration and reopening (2001-2010)
Over the years, the building had suffered deterioration, as a result of lack of maintenance and investment, and the wear and tear of its materials and the action of external agents such as pollution, rain, humidity and the passage of time.
In 2001, the government of the City of Buenos Aires carried out a master plan to carry out a complete restoration of the Teatro Colón. At that time, there were not even plans for the building, which took two years of work to complete. Between 2003 and 2005, "packing" works were carried out to prevent further water entry. Finally, in 2005, the third stage of restoration began. After seven years of works in which fifteen hundred people worked, at a cost of about one hundred million dollars, the theater was reopened in 2010.[30][31][32].
On May 24, 2010, as part of the celebrations for the Bicentennial of Argentina, the reopening of the theater took place with a three-dimensional animation show.[33][34] The event was attended by artists and politicians and La Bohème was presented. In 2013, it was chosen as the venue for the Martín Fierro television awards "Martin Fierro (award)").
In 2020 and 2021, it was closed to the public for fifteen months (except for a series of concerts in tribute to Astor Piazzolla), due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.[35][36][37].