The Teatro Real in Madrid is Madrid's opera house and is considered one of the most important in Spain and Europe, with the regular presence of the Spanish Royal Family in its performances being noteworthy. It is located in the Plaza de Oriente, in front of the Royal Palace, and is one of the most emblematic monuments of the city.

Construction and inauguration

King Fernando VII promoted the construction in Madrid of an opera theater included in the project to remodel the Plaza de Oriente. For this, the demolition of the old Caños del Peral Theater was ordered. The project was entrusted to the architect Antonio López Aguado who designed a building with an irregular hexagonal shape, whose main facade would face the Plaza de Oriente and the other, with less packaging, would fall on the current Plaza de Isabel II. The lack of funds from the Royal House prevented the works from beginning before 1830. Upon the death of the architect, the project was taken over by Custodio Teodoro Moreno. After the accession to the throne of Queen Elizabeth II, numerous political and bureaucratic events paralyzed the execution of the project, until on May 7, 1850, by means of a Royal Order, the works of the Theater were promoted, demanding its completion in a within six months.

The most important artists and decorators of the time worked on the interior decoration, such as Rafael Tejeo, Eugenio Lucas, who painted the ceilings, or Humanité-René Philastre, who designed the mouth curtain. Apart from the theater arena, with capacity for 2,800 spectators, there were two ballrooms, three lounges, a confectionery, a cafe, a dressing table and a cloakroom. All these comforts had been copied from great European theaters such as the San Carlo in Naples or La Scala in Milan.

El Teatro Real de Madrid se inauguró el 19 de noviembre de 1850, coincidiendo con la onomástica de la soberana. La obra elegida para el estreno fue fue la ópera La favorita de Gaetano Donizetti y actuaron artistas de renombre, como la contralto Marietta Alboni, la soprano Erminia Frezzolini o el director de orquesta Michele Rachele.

The history of the theater

First seasons

After the losses caused by the first season, and due to the enormous cost that a representation had, around 1,200,000 reais and the debts for its construction, the Government decided to transfer the management of the theater to private hands, through a concession. During the following years, different private entrepreneurs were alternated, who used to leave the management after suffering enormous losses. The first was the well-known Italian librettist and composer Temistocle Solera. The second season began with the representation of The martyrs , by Donizetti. It was a short season with only 69 performances, with great success among the Madrid aristocracy who enjoyed attending the opera as well as Parisian high society.

These first seasons were dominated by operas by Donizetti and Bellini, with the presence also of Rossini and Verdi, who soon became the favorite composer of the Madrid public. Verdi's visit to the theater, on the occasion of the premiere in Spain of his play La forza del Destino in 1863, was a social event in Madrid at the time. Despite the fact that, by contract, employers were obliged to present at least one work by a Spanish author each season, compliance with this commitment was normally avoided. The first performance of a Spanish opera was on April 26, 1854, with Ildegonda , by Emilio Arrieta.

Each of the cycles had an average of 120 performances, the majority operas, ballets and concerts. The theater staff amounted to 447 employees, plus the artists who participated in the specific works. As an anecdote, the young Emilio Castelar made his first great speech from one of the boxes in this theater, in 1854.

The prestigious history of Real

The years of splendor of the Royal Theater of Madrid began in the last quarter of the 19th century. The most prestigious voices on the European scene performed at the Theater, such as Adela Borghi, Adelina Patti, Giulia Grisi, Christina Nilsson, Luisa Tetrazzini, Mattia Battistini, Gaetano Fraschini, Julián Gayarre, Mario de Candia, Angelo Masini, Francesco Tamagno or Enrico Tamberlick . Memorable performances were produced, such as the one on December 23, 1880, in which Patti and Gayarre sang Lucia di Lammermoor by Donizetti. Gayarre himself starred in one of the historical episodes of the theater when he manifested during a performance of The Pearl Fishers , in December 1889, the first symptoms of pneumonia that would lead him to death a month later .

In 1876 an opera by Wagner, Rienzi , was performed for the first time in the Theater, still far from the great success that his compositions would have in this theater fifteen years later. At this stage, great Spanish composers such as Tomás Bretón, Ruperto Chapí or Emilio Serrano were able to see their works performed at the Real.

The Teatro Real in the 20th century

In the first quarter of the 20th century the presence in the Real of great Spanish singers stood out, such as María Barrientos, Ofelia Nieto , Ángeles Ottein, María Gay , Miguel Fleta, Hipólito Lázaro or Francisco Viñas . Also the great foreign lyrical figures (Rosina Storchio, Gabriella Besanzoni , Tito Schipa, Titta Ruffo, Giuseppe Anselmi , Giacomo Lauri-Volpi…). The repertoire was dominated by operas by Puccini ( Tosca , La Bohème ) and Wagner ( Lohengrin or La Valkyrie ). The Berlin Philharmonic gave concerts in the theater, conducted by Arthur Nikisch, in 1901 and Richard Strauss, in 1908.

From then on, the theater gradually suffered an enormous decline, since despite the representation of great operas and the direction of skilled conservatives such as Andrés Coello, the economic-political crises and various factors (fire of the theater in 1867) caused its ruin. But for years a solid project was raised again in which Rafael Calleja Gómez and Luis París are participants, the best operas in Europe were translated and premiered thanks to José María Alvira , the teacher of his academy, and other teachers and the coliseum enjoyed moments of glory, such as when he saw the great dancer Nijinsky pass through his stage, in what would be one of his last performances, in 1917, or as when Igor Stravinski directed his ballet Petrushka in person in 1921, both of them integrated in the Russian Ballets of Sergei Diagilev, who visited the theater several times, with great success.

On November 6, 1925, the Royal Theater of Madrid was closed by Royal Decree, since it was in danger of collapsing due to the Metro works that were being done in its vicinity, suspending the new season that was about to start.¹

Reopening as a concert hall

Despite the closing of the theater in 1925 , the government always considered the possibility of remodeling it and reopening it , creating numerous projects such as the one commissioned the architect Antonio Flórez Urdapilleta , who proposed a pharaonic remodeling of the building. However, economic difficulties prevented the realization of these projects, which remained in simple restorations. The theater remained closed, and the lack of use, and some incidents, such as the explosion of a powder magazine that had been installed inside, at the end of the Civil War, led it to an almost ruinous state.

After the war, the demolition of the building was seriously considered, while the Juan March Foundation promoted the construction of a new opera house on Paseo de la Castellana (a project that did not become a reality). Simultaneously, the remodeling of the Real as a concert hall was proposed, to serve as the headquarters of the National Orchestra, and as a "assembly hall of the Ministry of Education". ¹ The project was commissioned to the architect José Manuel González Valcárcel, and the reopening took place in 1966 , including in the building the facilities of the Conservatory of Music. For this event, a concert was held by the National Orchestra (conducted by Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos) and the Orfeón Donostiarra, attended by the Head of State Francisco Franco, princes Juan Carlos and Sofía, the Queen of Greece and her daughter Irene. From that date until 1988 (with the opening of the National Auditorium) it was the only concert hall in Madrid. In 1969 it hosted the XIV Eurovision Song Contest with a set designed by Salvador Dalí .

The new Teatro Real

From 1991 to 1997, the architects José Manuel González Valcárcel and Francisco Rodríguez de Partearroyo carried out the works for the reconversion of the Theater into an operatic hall. The stage was reformed by installing a complex and modern machinery that allows the vertical movement of the 18 platforms on the ground, which can descend to a depth of 24 meters, where the stage assembly level is located. The resulting stage has a surface area of ​​1,430 square meters, of which about 1,100 are scenic useful, with an opening to the room measuring 18 x 14 meters. In addition, all the spaces in the building were redecorated, including the rooms on the second floor, fully accessible to the public attending the shows. For the Main Hall, the Italian-style structure was maintained and the original 1850 decoration was recovered. The maximum capacity is 1,746 seats.

The Theater reopened its doors on October 11, 1997, in a gala function presided over by the Kings of Spain, in which two works by Manuel de Falla were performed: the ballet The Three-Cornered Hat (with the original sets and costumes by Pablo Picasso) and the opera La vida breve , staged by Francisco Nieva. Both were directed by the new musical director of the Theater, Luis Antonio García Navarro.

The theater has, in the same building, rehearsal rooms equipped for the orchestra, the choir and the dance corps, as well as a stage rehearsal room of the same size as the main stage. The artists have several individual rehearsal rooms. It also contains workshops on tailoring, hairdressing, characterization, props and set design. The public has a restaurant, cafeteria, projection room and shop. In 2007, the Sala Gayarre was inaugurated, with 190 seats, which is used for various complementary activities, such as concerts and chamber opera performances, recitals, educational activities, conferences, colloquia, courses and screenings.

Today the Real is one of the main opera theaters in Europe, whose seasons host magnificent productions in which leading international figures of song, musical direction, stage direction and dance participate. Among the greatest successes of this stage are those starring the tenors Juan Diego Flórez, Aquiles Machado or José Bros, the baritones José van Dam, Leo Nucci or Carlos Álvarez, the basses Ruggero Raimondi or Matti Salminen, the sopranos María Bayo, Inva Mula , Cecilia Bartoli, Daniela Dessì, Norah Amsellem, Deborah Polaski, Nina Stemme, Violeta Urmana or Edita Gruberova, the directors Mstislav Rostropovich, Daniel Barenboim, Claudio Abbado, Valeri Gergiev or Semyon Bychkov and the stage directors Giancarlo del Monaizco, Pier Luigi Pizzi , Hugo de Ana, Peter Sellars or Robert Carsen. Particularly well received have been the appearances of the Madrid tenor Plácido Domingo, who in one of them, Verdi's opera performance Simon Boccanegra , garnered 25 minutes of applause from the audience.

As a curious fact, it should be noted that the only composer who has premiered an opera at the Real was Pilar Jurado, on February 11, 2011, with her work La página en blanco .

Since its reopening as an opera house, the titular orchestra has been the Madrid Symphony.

Currently, the Teatro Real de Madrid hosts around 180 opera and ballet performances per season, in addition to an extensive program of concerts, recitals and other activities. The Pedagogical Project, in collaboration with other Madrid theaters, presents different shows related to the world of opera, adapted for children of different ages, attended by educational centers throughout Spain. The theater can be visited daily, on a guided tour by volunteers from the Madrid Association of Friends of the Opera.

In July 2011, on the occasion of the staging of Olivier Messiaen's opera Saint Francis of Assisi , subscription performances of the Teatro Real's opera season were offered for the first time outside the Plaza de East. In this case, the performances took place at the Madrid Arena. At the beginning of the following season, in September 2011, there was the first departure of the entire company from the Teatro Real, invited to perform in an opera house outside of Spain, specifically at the Bolshoi Theater, in Moscow, with the production of Kurt Weill's opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny.

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