Teatro Real

Teatro Real, west facade

Teatro Real de Madrid, east view from the Plaza de Isabel II

The Teatro Real ( Spanish : "Royal Theater") is an opera house in Madrid .

history

Teatro Real, auditorium

The story goes back to 1818. The new building near the Palacio Real was opened on November 19, 1850 in the presence of Queen Isabella II , on the site of the former De los Caños del Peral opera house , which was demolished in 1818. In the decades that followed, the house was one of the most important opera theaters in Europe, but had to be closed in 1925 due to dilapidation.

After decades of slumber, the Teatro Real was reopened in 1966, but initially as a pure concert hall without stage technology.

In 1969 the 14th Eurovision Song Contest took place here.

modernization

In 1985 the Spanish Ministry of Culture decided to set up a separate opera house for Madrid and created the legal form of the Teatro Lírico Nacional Foundation . Initially, the Teatro de la Zarzuela served as the place where the operas were performed .

After several years of renovation, the Teatro Real was reopened in 1997 and has since tried to build on old heydays.

The theater with the irregular hexagonal floor plan has 1748 seats (with orchestra seats: 1854). It is played on around 100 match days a year in the stadium system . The Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid serves as the orchestra .

In the course of the Spanish economic crisis, which began in 2008 with the bursting of a real estate bubble , which made it necessary to reorganize the public budget, the subsidies for the opera house were severely cut: within five years (2011-2016) their share of the house's budget fell from 70 to 30 percent. The budget gaps could be filled by a number of measures: privatization of the choir, ballet and orchestra, which became independent companies, with the ensemble members becoming shareholders; Acquisition of sponsorship money, merchandising as well as rental of the premises of the house for conferences and congresses.

The theater offers tours in several languages. Tours include the auditorium, stage, workshops and rehearsal rooms.