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55-535: The Teatro Colón (English: Columbus Theatre ) is a historic opera house in Buenos Aires , Argentina . It is considered one of the ten best opera houses in the world by National Geographic. According to a survey carried out by the acoustics expert Leo Beranek among leading international opera and orchestra directors, the Teatro Colón has the room with the best acoustics for opera and the second best for concerts in

110-451: A May 2008 reopening with Aida , became a three-year $ 100-million extravaganza with 1,500 workers including 130 professional architects and engineers." In addition, an exterior open-air stage was planned for an opening in 2011. In all, 60,000 square metres (645,835 sq ft) underwent updating, both inside and out. Some of the last performances immediately before closure of the theatre's building were Swan Lake on 30 September with

165-482: A communist, he organised his orchestra as a cooperative and paid his members by their contribution, earning their loyalty. Quite rare, his core orchestra members (Osvaldo Ruggiero 1st bandoneon, Enrique Camerano 1st violin, Julio Carrasco and Oscar Herrero 2nd violins, Alcides Rossi on double bass) stayed with him nearly 30 years (1939–1968). In 1955 Pugliese was imprisoned in Devoto from January to July, and in that prison he

220-659: A concert at the Teatro Colón, in Buenos Aires. He received 5 standing ovations. With characteristic humility he said: “The truth is... it’s a night of the people, of the masses, lovers of our genre, our beloved genre, tango.” The ceremony was led by Luis Brandoni and Héctor Larrea . The orchestra's members that night were: Roberto Álvarez, Alejandro Previgniano, Fabio Lapinta (bandoneons), Osvaldo Montermi, Fernando Rodríguez, Diego Lerendegui, Gabriel Rivas (violins), Merei Brain (Viola), Amílcar Tolosa (double bass) and Osvaldo Pugliese (piano). List of songs that were played: “La yumba”

275-466: A few days, freedom, the expected debut now at the National Theater and the confession of the police that they had "felt honored to be with such an artist." The idea of the red carnation on the piano was born: if Pugliese was in prison, the orchestra played the same, without a pianist. It has been said that it was proposed by Negro Mella, then presenter and reciter and later replaced by Eduardo Moreno,

330-486: A full restoration work was started that would extend until 2010, when it was reopened on May 24 in commemoration of the Bicentennial of Argentina. The first Teatro Colón was designed by Charles Pellegrini , and proved to be a successful venue for over 30 years, with 2,500 seats with the inclusion of a separate gallery reserved only for people who were in mourning. The construction started in 1856 and completed in 1857. This

385-632: A more popular and intimate aspect (see, for example, Adam de la Halle 's Jeu de Robin et Marion ("Play of Robin and Marion"), in the 13th century). At the beginning of the 17th century, in Italy, singing underwent yet another renewal, with the emergence of Baroque art at the height of the Renaissance . Italy continues to have many working opera houses, such as the Teatro Massimo in Palermo (the biggest in

440-598: A print graphic artist. His father finally convinced him to take classes with the teacher Antonio D'Agostino, at the Conservatorio Odeon. He wrote his first tango, Recuerdo, in 1924, when he was 19. Two years later, when it was finally recorded, it became a classic. ' La yumba ' (1946) is another famous and most popular Pugliese's tangos compositions. In 1939 he formed his orchestra as a cooperative and made his debut at Café El Nacional (980 Corrientes Avenue – "Cathedral of Tango") on 11 August 1939. The orchestra toured

495-458: A protest. The imprisonment of Rodolfo Ghioldi and Oreste Castronuovo, among other anonymous militants, in a Pugliese's ship, and the rumors that it was going to be sunk, generated so much commotion that they had to be released. In 1961, he wrote Milonga Para Fidel to show his support for the Cuban revolution. When he was in jail, he still wrote arrangements and the orchestra still performed, and placed

550-451: A publicly supported system. Early United States opera houses served a variety of functions in towns and cities, hosting community dances, fairs, plays, and vaudeville shows as well as operas and other musical events. In the 2000s, most opera and theatre companies are supported by funds from a combination of government and institutional grants , ticket sales, and private donations. In the 19th-century United States, many theaters were given

605-399: A red carnation on the keyboard of the piano in his honor. The 1960s government of the late General Juan Carlos Onganía (who had a deep fear of Peronists and communists alike) simply banned Pugliese from radio broadcasts and public places. Pugliese was a man of integrity and humility. He spent years in jail due to his beliefs. The government also restricted his recordings to 10 per year. As

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660-625: A world-famous operatic venue rivaling La Scala and the Metropolitan Opera in attracting most of the world's best opera singers and conductors. The Teatro was bombed by anarchists in 1910; Georges Clemenceau was present in Argentina during the attack. The bomb landed in the middle of the orchestra. Clemenceau describes the attack as follows: "The horror can not be exaggerated. A senior official told me that he had never seen such puddles of blood. The wounded were carried off as best as possible, and

715-599: The Argentine National Symphony Orchestra , conducted by Pedro Ignacio Calderón . While it was originally planned to reopen in time for the centenary on 25 May 2008, delays prevented this, and the house was finally reopened with a gala concert and 3D animations on 24 May 2010, the eve of its own 102nd birthday and the Argentina Bicentennial . Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake and Act 2 of Puccini's La bohème were performed. A private concert to test

770-472: The Belgian architect Julio Dormal . The original auditorium "had eight boxes with metal grilles and a separate entrance, so that those in mourning could still attend performances, but remain dignifiedly sequestered from public view". The Colon's acoustics are considered to be so good as to place it in the top five performance venues in the world. Luciano Pavarotti held a similar opinion. The present theatre,

825-584: The Royal Opera House in Covent Garden , London), standing room for 1,000 and a stage which is 20 m wide, 15 m high and 20 m deep. The low-rise building has 6 floors above ground and 3 below ground, 7 elevators with a facade of applied masonry. It has a large central chandelier with 700 light bulbs. The original architect was the Italian Francesco Tamburini; after his death it was completed by

880-566: The biblical Book of Daniel , deals with Israel's captivity in Babylon . The play was written and performed by students of the Episcopal School of Beauvais , located in northern France. In the 15th century, sung theater of a religious nature found a special place in the mystery plays performed on cathedral squares. As before, they dealt with sacred subjects, but they were not about worship per se. Secular musical theater also existed, but had

935-532: The 1890 crisis and its effects were the cause for the delay in the completion of this second theater. Before the construction of the current Teatro Colón, opera performances were given in several theatres, of which the first Teatro Colón and the Teatro Opera were the most important. The principal company that performed at the Teatro Opera moved to the Teatro Colón in 1908. However, major companies also performed at

990-541: The 20th-century artist Raúl Soldi during renovation work. In recent years, given the political and economic circumstances of Argentina, the Teatro Colón has suffered considerably, but a period of slow recovery began. The theatre underwent massive phased remodelling of both interior and exterior, initially while the house was still open, but production activities ceased at the end of December 2006 to allow full refurbishment. Initially, "what had been planned as an 18-month, $ 25-million renovation with 500 workers, scheduled for

1045-535: The Ballet Estable del Teatro Colón and the Buenos Aires Philharmonic ( Orquesta Filarmónica de Buenos Aires ). and, on 28 October, the opera Boris Godunov was given featuring Orquesta Estable del Teatro Colón and the house chorus. The theatre's final performance before its closure for refurbishment works in 2005 was a concert on 1 November starring folklore singer Mercedes Sosa in performance with

1100-1833: The Plaza de Mayo until 1888 and the second located in front of the Plaza Lavalle, which took 20 years to be built until its inauguration in 1908. This land formerly housed the Park Station , the first railway station of the Argentine Republic as head of the Western Railway of Buenos Aires . Throughout its history the main figures of opera, classical music and world ballet have performed in the Colón theater, such as Arturo Toscanini , Vaslav Nijinsky , Luisa Tetrazzini , Enrico Caruso , Conchita Supervia , Regina Pacini , Anna Pavlova , Maya Plisetskaya , Margot Fonteyn , Mikhail Barishnikov , Antonio Gades , Richard Strauss , Igor Stravinsky , Camille Saint-Saens , Manuel de Falla , Aaron Copland , Herbert von Karajan , Leonard Bernstein , Mstislav Rostropovich , Zubin Mehta , Maria Callas , Renata Tebaldi , Leontyne Price , Ana Serrano Redonnet , Celia Torra , Yehudi Menuhin , Pau Casals , Rudolf Nureyev , Maurice Béjart , Plácido Domingo , José Carreras , Luciano Pavarotti , Lily Pons , Marina de Gabaráin , Victoria de los Ángeles , Reri Grist , Montserrat Caballé , Kiri Te Kanawa , among others, and Argentine artists such as Adelaida Negri , Héctor Panizza , Alberto Ginastera , Jorge Donn , Norma Fontenla , José Neglia , Olga Ferri , Julio Bocca , Maximiliano Guerra, Paloma Herrera , Daniel Barenboim , Martha Argerich , Astor Piazzolla , Aníbal Troilo and Osvaldo Pugliese . In

1155-532: The RCA-Víctor 39776 album, from Ricardo Tanturi's version of 1942. The famous tango "Recuerdo – a los amigos" was composed by Puglise in the honor of his friends: Torcuato Di Giorgio, Amadeo Pioriello, Alfredo Bianchi, Jose Tonareeli & Rogelio Boisselier. Pugliese had composed the immortal Recuerdo in 1924 – “a tango for the year 3000”, according to Julio De Caro, who premiered it in 1927– and performed with Paquita Bernardo, Alfredo Gobbi (h) and Elvino Vardaro: he

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1210-529: The Teatro Politeama and the Teatro Coliseo which opened in 1907. The theatre is bounded by the wide 9 de Julio Avenue (technically Cerrito Street), Libertad Street (the main entrance), Arturo Toscanini Street, and Tucumán Street. It is in the heart of the city on a site once occupied by Ferrocarril Oeste 's Plaza Parque station. The auditorium is horseshoe-shaped, has 2,487 seats (slightly more than

1265-418: The abandonment of ancient theaters, which were transformed into gigantic stone quarries , like many other ancient buildings, both public or private. Music still had its place in worship. It continued to bring audiences together, but its content was completely renewed. The Jeu de Daniel ("Play of Daniel") was a sung play, characteristic of the medieval Renaissance of the 12th century . The subject, taken from

1320-682: The acoustics attended by employees, architects, and others involved in the renovation occurred on 6 May 2010. On the 6 September 2013, the Teatro Colón hosted the Opening Ceremony of the 125th Session of the International Olympic Committee. 34°36′3.9″S 58°22′59.1″W  /  34.601083°S 58.383083°W  / -34.601083; -58.383083  ( Teatro Colón ) Opera house While some venues are constructed specifically for operas, other opera houses are part of larger performing arts centers. Indeed,

1375-514: The author of the lyrics of Recuerdo. However, other testimonies –Petit de Murat, García Jiménez, Jauretche- pierced that story: yes, the carnation was placed on the piano, but many times Don Osvaldo appeared later, gave the flower to some lady in the audience. He was a member of the Communist Party starting in 1936. He also managed to help create "Sociedad de Músicos y Artistas Afines" to increase job stability and wages for musicians. In 1956, he

1430-598: The country), the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples and the Teatro alla Scala in Milan . The Teatro San Cassiano in Venice was the world's first public opera house, inaugurated as such in 1637. In the 17th and 18th centuries, opera houses were often financed by rulers, nobles, and wealthy people who used patronage of the arts to endorse their political ambition and social position. There

1485-580: The former Soviet Union in 1959 (eighty cities in three months – sometimes playing two or three shows a day) and also China (twenty-eight cities in another month), Chile (1990), Mexico, Columbia (1980), Peru, Cuba (1984, 1988, 1992), Japan (1965, 135 shows in five months; 1979, 1989), the U.S. (stopping in Chicago in 1979), the Middle East, France (1984), Portugal, Spain (1985; 1988 playing in Madrid, at Teatro Albéniz with

1540-485: The last decade other popular artists such as Chris Cornell , Katherine Jenkins , Sarah Brightman , Joss Stone , Branford Marsalis , play here. Among the main events of its history are the creation of stable bodies in the 1920s and its municipalization in 1931. In 1946, Peronism promoted a policy of openness to popular music and greater democratization of the public, which was reverted after its overthrow in 1955 and again resumed when democracy recovered in 1983. In 2006

1595-558: The musician born on December 2, 1905, to ward off any inconvenience. "We always mention Pugliese", Gieco sings in "Los Salieris de Charly", a song dated 1992. Sebastián Bianchini, from the Tree group, composed an ironic song dedicated to Pugliese ("Suerte") "It seems that mixing his musical activity with the political would mean making it dirty, but he never loses sight of this ethical-aesthetic relationship that he has known how to project and shape in his interlocutors", said María Mercedes Liska In

1650-435: The name "opera house", even ones where opera was seldom if ever performed. Opera was viewed as a more respectable art form than theater ; calling a local theater an "opera house" therefore served to elevate it and overcome objections from those who found the theater morally objectionable. Notes Sources Osvaldo Pugliese Osvaldo Pedro Pugliese ( Buenos Aires , December 2, 1905 – July 25, 1995, Buenos Aires )

1705-546: The present Teatro Colón was laid in 1889 under the direction of architect Francesco Tamburini and his pupil, Vittorio Meano , who designed a theatre in the Italian style on a scale and with amenities which matched those in Europe. However, delays followed due to financial difficulties, arguments regarding the location, the death of Tamburini in 1891, the murder of Meano in 1904 and the death of Angelo Ferrari , an Italian businessman who

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1760-511: The prima ballerina, Lida Martinoli . When she retired from dancing, Martinoli began to choreograph. She died in Santa Fe . The tragic 1971 aviation death of two of the best known of these, Norma Fontenla and José Neglia , was commemorated with a monument in neighbouring Lavalle Square. With excellent acoustics and modern stage areas, the theatre's interior design features a rich scarlet and gold decor. The cupola contains canvas painted in 1966 by

1815-546: The relationship of consonance that it will have with one of these vases." The odeon built by Pericles near the Theater of Dionysus in Athens was, according to the Suda , intended for the rehearsal of music that was to be sung in the grand theater or, according to Plutarch , for the jury to audition musicians competing for a prize. Ancient theaters provided the ideal conditions, but it

1870-563: The room was emptied by the cries of fury, and the material damage repaired during the day which followed, not a woman of society missed the representation of the morrow. It is a fine trait of character that particularly honors the female element of the Argentine nation. I am not quite sure that in Paris the hall would have been full in such cases." Ballet stars performed at the Colón alongside Argentine dancers and classical instrumentalists. This included

1925-615: The second with that name, opened on 25 May 1908, after twenty years under construction, and was inaugurated with Aida by the Italian company directed by Luigi Mancinelli and tenor Amedeo Bassi , soprano Lucia Crestani (as Aida). The second presentation was Thomas' Hamlet with the baritone Titta Ruffo During the inaugural season seventeen operas were performed with famous stars such as Ruffo , Feodor Chaliapin in Boito 's Mefistofele , Antonio Paoli in Verdi 's Otello . The cornerstone of

1980-517: The singer Joan Manuel Serrat , and Barcelona), Belgium, The Netherlands (with Astor Piazzolla in Amsterdam, 29 June 1989), Finland and almost all South and Central American countries: Uruguay (1987, Solís Theatre in Montevideo). For his work the maestro received high cultural distinctions, including from the Argentine, French and Cuban governments. At age 80, he was allowed on 26 December 1985 to give

2035-408: The team tried to do a test with a record of Maestro Pugliese. Everything began to improve and Charly gave the show. Hence the myth of good luck that the invocation of the musician brought. In 2000, five years after Pugliese's death, the musician Alberto Muñoz wrote a prayer to pray to the tango patron saint. Other artists, including León Gieco and Javier Calamaro , acknowledged that they invoked

2090-409: The term opera house is often used as a term of prestige for any large performing arts center. Based on Aristoxenus 's musical system, and paying homage to the architects of ancient Greek theater , Vitruvius described, in the 1st century BC, in his treatise De architectura , the ideal acoustics of theaters. He explained the use of brazen vases that Mummius had brought to Rome after having had

2145-446: The theater of Corinth demolished, and as they were probably used in the Theater of Pompey . As wooden theaters were naturally sonorous, these vases, placed between the seats on the stands, served as resonators in the stone buildings: "By means of this arrangement, the voice, which will come from the stage as from a center, will extend in circles, will strike in the cavities of the vases, and will be made stronger and clearer, according to

2200-418: The theatre's decline became clear and plans were made for massive renovations. After an initial start of works to restore the landmark in 2005, the theatre was closed for refurbishment from October 2006 to May 2010. It re-opened on 24 May 2010, with a programme for the 2010 season. The theatre was declared a National Historic Monument in 1991. The Colón theater operated in two buildings, the first located in

2255-417: The work of Juan Carlos Ferraro (1997), which was made thanks to the generous contribution of his fans. His funeral received great attention with an impressive caravan that marched in reverse along Corrientes Avenue . It is said that during a Charly García recital a series of situations and technical problems were triggered that delayed the start of the show. The sound was not working well, until someone from

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2310-505: The world. The present Colón replaced an original theatre which opened in 1857. Towards the end of the century, it became clear that a new theatre was needed, and after a 20-year process, the present theatre opened on 25 May 1908, with Giuseppe Verdi 's Aïda . The Teatro Colón was visited by the foremost singers and opera companies of the time, who would sometimes go on to other cities including Montevideo , Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo . After this period of huge international success,

2365-603: Was a lunch in Olivos, and there Perón got up, went to Pugliese and extended his hand: "I want to apologize, teacher, for those little matters that we had pending..." The musician accepted the greeting and replied: "Don't worry. Everything is already forgotten." Perón looked him in the eye raised his voice: "Only greats like you know how to forgive." He died after a short illness on 25 July 1995 at 89 years old. His remains are in Chacarita Cemetery in an imposing mausoleum,

2420-579: Was an Argentine tango musician. He developed dramatic arrangements that retained strong elements of the walking beat of salon tango but also heralded the development of concert-style tango music. Some of his music, mostly since the 1950s, is used for theatrical dance performances. In Buenos Aires, Pugliese is often played later in the evening when the dancers want to dance more slowly, impressionistically and intimately. His father, Don Adolfo Pugliese (1877–1945), pushed him to work harder; his mother, Aurelia Terragno (1880–1947), often whispered to her son while he

2475-611: Was by the Julio De Caro orchestra, on December 9, 1926, in instrumental form. In 1927 the female singer Rosita Montemar recorded it sung for the first time, with the accompaniment of musicians from the Víctor label. The Bianco-Bachicha orchestra recorded it instrumentally in Paris in 1928. And in 1930, the Orquesta Típica Victor, with the voice of Roberto Díaz. All labels feature A. Pugliese. And even more, it still appears like this on

2530-413: Was celebrated with an opening on April 27, 1857, with Verdi 's La traviata , just four years after its Italian premiere. The production starred Sofia Vera Lorini as Violetta and Enrico Tamberlik as Alfredo. This theater was closed on September 13, 1888 to step aside for a new improved building, which was opened twenty years later on Libertad street, overlooking Plaza Lavalle . In that period of time,

2585-595: Was financing the new theatre. The building was finally completed in 1908 under the direction of the Belgian architect Julio Dormal who made some changes in the structure and left his mark in the French style of the decoration. The bas-reliefs and busts on the facade are the work of sculptor Luigi Trinchero . The theatre's opening on 25 May, the Día de la Patria in Argentina, featured a performance of Verdi's Aida and it quickly became

2640-465: Was imprisoned by the dictatorship of the Revolución Libertadora in the so-called "Operation Cardenal", together with the entire Central Committee of the Communist Party. They were locked up in the ship "París", which was to be sunk with them inside. That night, Pugliese's orchestra had to appear on Radio Splendid, and they appeared without their conductor, and with a red carnation on the piano as

2695-752: Was no opera house in London when Henry Purcell was composing and the first opera house in Germany, the Oper am Gänsemarkt , was built in Hamburg in 1678, followed by the Oper am Brühl in Leipzig in 1693, and the Opernhaus vorm Salztor in Naumburg in 1701. With the rise of bourgeois and capitalist social forms in the 19th century, European culture moved away from its patronage system to

2750-474: Was not a stranger, but a popular musician who put together that initial orchestra as a cooperative. Pugliese was outspoken in his political opinions. His communist sympathies, though never violent, at times earned him the hostility of those in power. “The exact reason why Osvaldo Pugliese was imprisoned the first time was never known, a fact that did not occur during the Perón government but before, in 1939, when he

2805-570: Was not yet time for opera: the aim was to worship the deities, not to venerate the muses . The subject was religious, it was accompanied by singing and instrumental music. Worship was public, and the audience was made up of citizens as well as other categories of the population. Four centuries later, the Church abandoned spectacles as practiced in Antiquity. Histrions , representative of Greco-Roman civilization , gradually disappeared. The Middle Ages saw

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2860-413: Was played with his old orchestra members: The most famous tango composition of Osvaldo Pugliese are: Recuerdo (1924), Ausencia (Tango mío) (1931), El frenopático, Primera categoría, El encopao (1942), Recién (1943), Adiós Bardi (1944), Una vez (1946), Igual que una sombra (1946), La yumba, Negracha (1948), Malandraca (1949), Milonga para Fidel (1961), Para Eduardo Arolas. The first recording of "Recuerdo"

2915-455: Was practicing, ¡Al Colón! ( To the Colón! ), referring to Buenos Aires' famous Teatro Colón , where only the country's finest artists play. His other brothers Adolfo Vicente and Alberto Roque were violinists. He was married two times, to María Concepción Florio and to Lydia Elman. His first wife died in 1971, and he had one daughter, Lucela Delma "Beba" Pugliese (b. 1939), a pianist in her own right. In 1918 he left primary school to work as

2970-473: Was preparing to debut with his orchestra at the inauguration of the new headquarters of the Communist Party”..."They wanted to punish the rebellion by imprisoning a prestigious figure on the left." according to the writer Enrique Medina. It is known: at the police station he was treated with respect, invited to drink mate in the officer's office and they went to look for “tortitas negras”, which he liked. After

3025-565: Was seen, with a mop and bucket, cleaning corridors, refusing to let other detainees take away that work. Don Osvaldo was never an agitator, but a man with convictions who never confused art with ideology. It happened that in certain political stages of Argentina, due to his popularity, they considered him a "war booty". At the end of 1973, a few months before Peron died, the founder of Justicialismo organized an artistic show to which he invited figures such as Horacio Guarany , Mercedes Sosa , Edmundo Rivero and Osvaldo Pugliese. The next noon there

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