Teatro Municipal Enrique Buenaventura
Cali's Italian-style horseshoe theatre of 1927, a national monument with a year-round programme.
Cali lost its Teatro Borrero to fire in 1914, and Manuel María Buenaventura campaigned for a replacement. The municipal council balked at the cost until a city lottery was created to fund the work; the foundation stone was laid on 9 April 1918. The building rose slowly in an Italian classical manner and was inaugurated on 30 November 1927 with an opera season by the touring Bracale company. It was declared a national monument of Colombia in 1982 and later renamed for the dramatist Enrique Buenaventura.
The auditorium follows the traditional horseshoe plan, with stalls and four tiers of boxes, amphitheatre and gallery seating rather more than a thousand people. Ceiling frescoes were painted by the Bogotá-born, Italian-trained artist Mauricio Ramelli Andreani. The theatre is run by the city of Cali and presents opera, symphonic and chamber concerts, drama, contemporary dance and Colombian folk music, alongside guided tours that take in the auditorium, foyers and backstage areas.
Highlights
- Italian-style horseshoe auditorium seating over 1,000
- Ceiling frescoes by Mauricio Ramelli Andreani
- Opened in 1927 with an opera season by the Bracale company
- Guided tours of auditorium, foyers and backstage
