Solís Theatre (Teatro Solís)
Uruguay's principal opera house of 1856, with three halls and a year-round programme of opera and concerts.
A committee of Montevideo citizens began planning a national theatre in 1833, and the Italian architect Carlo Zucchi presented drawings in 1840. Work was interrupted by the Great Siege of Montevideo and the building finally opened on 25 August 1856 with Verdi's Ernani. Francisco Xavier Garmendia completed the shell, and the French architect Víctor Rabú added the Corinthian portico and the flanking wings in the 1870s. The facade recalls the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, while the horseshoe auditorium follows Italian models.
The theatre belongs to the city of Montevideo and reopened in August 2004 after a six-year restoration that renewed the stage machinery and the acoustics, work overseen by the French acoustician Jérôme Falala. Philippe Starck designed the columns of the remodelled foyer. Beside the main hall of roughly 1,500 seats there are two smaller rooms, the Sala Zavala Muniz and the Sala Delmira Agustini. The house presents opera, the Filarmónica de Montevideo, dance, drama and touring ensembles, and runs daily guided tours.
Highlights
- Corinthian portico added by Víctor Rabú in the 1870s
- Horseshoe main auditorium seating about 1,500
- Foyer columns designed by Philippe Starck in the 2004 restoration
- Studio halls Zavala Muniz and Delmira Agustini for smaller work
