Maestranza Theatre
Seville's opera house on the Guadalquivir, home to opera, ballet and the city's symphony orchestra.
The Maestranza Theatre stands on the Paseo de Cristobal Colon beside the Guadalquivir, next to the bullring whose name it shares. Designed by Aurelio del Pozo Serrano and Luis Marin de Teran, it was built for Expo 92 and inaugurated on 2 May 1991. The architects incorporated a surviving curved arcade from the eighteenth-century artillery foundry that previously occupied the site, wrapping the new auditorium in a drum that echoes the neighbouring bullring.
The main hall seats around 1,800 and is equipped with a deep stage house, side and rear stages and an orchestra pit that can be raised. It is the principal opera house of Andalusia and the resident home of the Royal Symphony Orchestra of Seville. Programming pairs staged opera and zarzuela with symphonic concerts, chamber recitals, dance and flamenco, including performances during the Bienal de Flamenco. Backstage tours take visitors into the workshops, rehearsal rooms and stage machinery.
Highlights
- Circular auditorium of about 1,800 seats beside the Guadalquivir
- Eighteenth-century foundry arcade preserved in the modern facade
- Resident home of the Royal Symphony Orchestra of Seville
- Backstage tour taking in stage machinery, wardrobe and rehearsal rooms
