Toby and Allan in Argentina: Visiting Teatro Colon and Museo Judio

Friday March 22 was another beautiful day with a high of around 24C. No humidity and clear blue skies. Alano did his second run - 9km. We had an early lunch of gefilte fish (pre Passover nosh) and then took the subway to the Tribunales stop. Our destination was Teatro Colon, but first we took pictures of the Palacio de Justicia where the Supreme Court is located, on another lovely square designed by the French landscape architect Charles Thays.

Alano with his gefilte fish

Palacio de Justicia

The old and new buildings on the square

Outside one of the entrances to the Teatro Colon

The side view of Teatro Colon- very impressive

Memorial in Park to two ballerinas who died in a plane crash in 1971

Opera lineup this year

We then took a tour of Teatro Colon. The original Teatro opened in 1857 at a Plaza de Mayo location. The foundation stone was placed at the present site in 1889 and the building took 20 years to be completed. As usual, there is a story involving the architects who designed the building. The first architect, Italian Francesco Tanburini died unexpectedly at age 44 in 1891 and his student Vittorio Meano took over. Unfortunately, Meano caught his wife with the butler and was killed by the butler in 1904, also at the age of 44. The third architect, Julio Dormal, a Belgium architect, completed the project in 1908. The opening opera was Verdi's Aida. The Teatro Colon ranks in the top 5 Opera Houses for its acoustics.

During the completion of the building, the economy had improved considerably which resulted in its opulent interior. The Teatro recently underwent a major renovation that went over time and over budget. The Teatro was closed between October 2006 and May 2010.

The Main Hall

Grand steps leading to the theatre

Ceiling in the Main Hall

Standing by a railing with three different types of marble

Our Guide then took us into a hallway with busts of all the great Opera composers. He stopped by this sculpture of Cupid whispering into Venus' ear.

Guide with Venus and Cupid

Bust of Verdi

Ceiling detail

Stained Glass detail

We then entered the opulent Golden Room where the elite gathered. There is an amazing amount of 14 carat gold in this room The Golden Room is now also used for Chamber Music concerts and more recently was a catwalk for BA fashion week. The recent refurbishing polished all the gold and the result is incredible.

The amazing Gold Room

We then went into the concert hall. Fortuitously, there were some auditions going on and we were able to sit in the best loges for about 10 minutes. The acoustics were incredible. Our guide also pointed out the beautiful ceiling paintings that were done for free by a well-known Argentinian painter.

Concert Hall and stage

Ceiling detail

The audition

We also saw a hallway with a number of costumes displayed under glass. The one below is a costume worn by Guillaume Cote from our National Ballet at a performance of Carmen in 2008.

Guillaume Cote's costume - a bit of Canada in BA.

As we were leaving we had our picture taken at the Grand Steps.

After the wonderful tour, we walked out into the Plaza where there was an exhibit of photos featuring performers, audiences and other events associated with the Teatro.

Inauguration 1908

Miners for Peron at the Teatro

Ballet Class

After the exhibit saw the Cervantes Theatre and then headed down the block to the Museo Judio which is next to the beautiful synagogue of the Israelite Congregation of the Argentine Republic. The small museum opened in 1967 and the tour started with a film outlining the immigration experience to BA. Many Russian Jews fleeing pogroms were promised land and work in Argentina. It didn't always work out as planned, but many ultimately settled initially in the countryside, later moving to the cities.

Teatro Cervantes

Outside of the synagogue-- museum is in a building on the right side

Inside the synagogue

The museum outlined the immigrant experience. In 1889, a number of immigrants came on a boat called the Wesser. They were ultimately settled in the countryside. One community, where our guide's ancestors had settled had a Jewish population of 10,000 around 1920, which has now dropped to 200.

Jewish Gauchos

On the memorial wall in the synagogue- referring to the disappeared from the Tarnopolsky family

Jews were rounded up in greater numbers than their proportion of the population during the Dirty War.

Poster outlining the treatment of Jews during the Dirty War

In the basement of the main synagogue is a small Orthodox synagogue

Orthodox service

We learned that the congregation is presently only around 180. There are however, over 80 synagogues in BA.

After our visit to the Museum, we went for slice of pizza at Guerrin and then headed down Avenida de Mayo to Tortoni's for a coffee. We passed a hotel where Federico Garcia Lorca lived in 1933-34. We also visited the lobby of Palacido Barolo, the building modelled on the Divine Comedy. Dragon images, representing Hell, line the lobby.