Teatro João Caetano
Rio's oldest playhouse, founded on Praça Tiradentes in 1813 and rebuilt in its present form in 1930.
The oldest playhouse in Rio de Janeiro opened on Praça Tiradentes in October 1813 as the Real Theatro de São João, built for Dom João VI to a neoclassical design by the engineer João Manuel da Silva, its front modelled on the São Carlos opera house in Lisbon. The ceremony marking Brazil's first constitution was held here in 1824. Fires in 1824, 1851 and 1856 destroyed successive buildings, and in 1923 the house was renamed after the nineteenth-century actor João Caetano.
The present theatre opened in June 1930 and seats about 1,139 in stalls and two balconies. It is run by FUNARJ, the Rio de Janeiro state arts foundation, and its stage has carried opera, operetta, drama, comedy, musicals and popular music, with performers from Sarah Bernhardt and Eleonora Duse to Fernanda Montenegro and Maria Bethânia. Two panels painted by Emiliano Di Cavalcanti for the building are generally described as the first modernist murals in Latin America.
Highlights
- Founded in 1813 as the Real Theatro de São João, Rio's oldest theatre
- Di Cavalcanti panels, called Latin America's first modernist murals
- Auditorium of about 1,139 seats in stalls and two balconies
- On Praça Tiradentes, in the historic centre of the city
