Teatro El Círculo
Rosario's 1904 opera house, an Italian-style horseshoe hall long praised for its acoustics.
Building began in 1888 to designs by the architects Cremona and Contri, but money ran out and work halted at first-floor level. The businessman Emilio Schiffner bought the project in 1889 and engaged the German engineer George Goldammer, an acoustics specialist, to revise the plans; the firm Bianchi, Vila y Compañía carried out the work. The house opened on 4 June 1904 as the Teatro La Ópera with Verdi's Otello, and was among the largest theatres in the country at the time.
The auditorium is a five-tier horseshoe in the Italian manner seating roughly 1,450 people. Its acoustics drew praise from visiting performers, Enrico Caruso among them, and the stage has received many of the touring companies that passed through the River Plate. In 1943 the cultural association El Círculo bought the building and gave it its present name. The complex also contains the Eduardo Barnes museum of sacred art, housed in vaulted rooms beneath the theatre.
Highlights
- Five-tier Italian horseshoe auditorium seating about 1,450
- Acoustics revised by the German engineer George Goldammer
- Opened in 1904 with Verdi's Otello as the Teatro La Ópera
- Eduardo Barnes museum of sacred art in the vaults below
