Teatro Colón

The Teatro Colón is the cultural cathedral of Buenos Aires and the clearest proof of the wealth and ambition the city had a century ago, when Argentina was one of the richest countries on earth and its capital set out to rival Paris and Milan. Twenty years in the making, through the deaths of two architects and a change of design team, the theatre finally opened on 25 May 1908 with Verdi's Aida, and it has hosted almost every great name in opera, ballet and classical music since — Caruso, Callas, Toscanini, Stravinsky, Nureyev, Pavarotti and Domingo among them. The building mixes Italian Renaissance, French and German influences in the eclectic style of its age, but the reason musicians speak of it with something like reverence is the sound. The horseshoe auditorium, with seven levels of boxes and galleries rising to the gods and roughly two and a half thousand seats, has acoustics so balanced and warm that it is routinely listed alongside the Musikverein in Vienna and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam as one of the finest halls ever built. Look up and the dome is covered by a vast circular painting by the Argentine artist Raúl Soldi, added in the 1960s, framing a giant chandelier. The public spaces are just as theatrical: a main foyer of Italian marble and French stained glass, a grand staircase, and the Salón Dorado, the Golden Hall, a gilded gallery of mirrors and chandeliers modelled on the great palaces of Europe and now used for chamber concerts. After a long restoration, the theatre reopened in 2010 for the bicentenary of Argentine independence, with its gilding, velvet and workshops renewed. The theatre still makes almost everything in-house — sets, costumes, wigs, shoes — and that craft tradition is part of the story the guides tell.

The guided tour is the way most visitors see the Colón, and it is excellent. Tours run daily through the day and last about fifty minutes, leaving every few minutes in Spanish and on a regular, roughly hourly schedule in English, with some departures in Portuguese. The route takes in the main foyer and staircase, the Golden Hall, the busts and marble of the public rooms and, the highlight, a few minutes seated in a box or in the stalls looking up at the dome while the guide explains why the room sounds the way it does. If a rehearsal is in progress you may hear the orchestra or see the stage being prepared, though access to the auditorium can be limited on performance days. Prices for foreign visitors sit roughly in the twenty-five to thirty-five dollar range, paid in pesos at the rate of the day, and slots sell out in high season, so book a few days ahead online or at the box office on Calle Libertad. The Tiqets option linked here bundles a guided walk through the surrounding centre with the theatre visit, a good choice if you want context on the Avenida 9 de Julio, the Obelisco and Avenida de Mayo in the same morning.

Seeing a performance is the real reward, and it is less exclusive than visitors expect. The season of opera, ballet and symphonic concerts runs through most of the year, and prices range from top-tier boxes to standing room and upper-gallery seats that cost little more than the tour. Dress is smart rather than formal. Upper-level seats can have restricted views but, because of the acoustics, they often sound wonderful, and locals who know the house swear by the highest galleries. Free concerts and the occasional open-air broadcast also appear in the calendar, so check the programme when you plan your dates. If you are interested in how the theatre works, the Colón Fábrica, the company's workshop and exhibition space near the river in La Boca, shows sets, props and costumes from past productions on certain days.

The theatre faces the Plaza Lavalle on one side and the Avenida 9 de Julio on the other, a short walk from the Obelisco, so it fits neatly into a day in the centre. Combine a morning tour with lunch on Avenida Corrientes, the street of theatres and late-opening pizzerias, a look at the art nouveau Palacio Barolo on Avenida de Mayo and an evening at Plaza de Mayo. For music lovers, the best plan is a tour on your first day, which makes an evening performance later in the week far more meaningful once you know the room. Even if opera is not your thing, the Colón is the single interior that best explains why Buenos Aires was once called the Paris of the South.