TEATRO COLÓN

The Buenos Aires Opera House was inaugurated on May 25, 1908, with Verdi's opera Aida as its first performance. Built by the Italian and Belgian architects Francisco Tamburini, Vittorio Meano and Jules Dormal, the former was inspired by the Parisian neo-baroque opera Garnier, while his collaborator introduced a dose of Italian neo Renaissance. Their successors will complete the building with a touch of Art Nouveau. The Colón, which stands along the widest avenue in the world, is one of the most prestigious opera houses in the world, which has welcomed the greatest names in classical music and enjoys a reputation similar to that of the Paris Opera, La Scala in Milan, the Vienna Opera or the Semperoper in Dresden. The auditorium is immense, topped by a dome repainted in 1966 by the artist Raúl Soldi, and can accommodate up to 2,487 spectators. Its acoustics are considered one of the five best in the world, alongside the Berlin Konzerthaus, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Symphony Hall in Boston and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. The opera house underwent a restoration in 2006 and reopened during the country's bicentenary celebrations on 24 May 2010 with a performance of La Bohème. The Colón is also home to tango shows and, during the Festival y Mundial de Tango de la Ciudad, Gabriel Mores, grandson of the famous Mariano Mores, records the hits of his grandfather accompanied by his sextet and the forty musicians of the Buenos Aires Philharmonic Orchestra.