The Amazon Theatre in Manaus

Monday, 22 February 2016 - 11:00 am (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination:
Category/Kategorie: General, Opera Houses, Theaters, Libraries
Reading Time:  3 minutes

Teatro Amazonas © Joshjrowe/cc-by-sa-3.0

Teatro Amazonas © Joshjrowe/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Amazon Theatre (Portuguese: Teatro Amazonas) is an opera house located in Manaus, in the heart of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. It is the location of the annual Festival Amazonas de Ópera (Amazonas Opera Festival) and the home of the Amazonas Philharmonic Orchestra which regularly rehearses and performs at the Amazon Theater along with choirs, musical concerts and other performances.

The Amazonas Theatre was built during the Belle Époque at a time when fortunes were made in the rubber boom. Construction of the Amazon Theatre was first proposed in 1881 by a member of the local House of Representatives, Antonio Jose Fernandes Júnior, who envisioned a “jewel” in the heart of the Amazon rainforest.

© flickr.com - Pedro Angelini/cc-by-2.0 © JLPizzol/cc-by-sa-4.0 © H. Langos/cc-by-2.5 © LecomteB/cc-by-sa-4.0 © Pontanegra/cc-by-sa-2.5 Teatro Amazonas © Joshjrowe/cc-by-sa-3.0
<
>
Teatro Amazonas © Joshjrowe/cc-by-sa-3.0
In 1882, the State legislature approved some limited financing, but this was considered insufficient. Later that year, the president of the Province, José Lustosa Paranaguá, approved a larger budget and initiated a competition for the presentation of plans. The chosen project was made by the Gabinete Português de Engenharia e Arquitectura, an engineering and architecture office from Lisbon. By 1884, construction was ready to begin under the Italian architect Celestial Sacardim. Work proceeded slowly over the following fifteen years with some stops and restarts from 1885 to 1892. By 1895, when the masonry work and exterior were completed, the decoration of the interior and the installation of electric lighting could begin more rapidly. The theatre was inaugurated on December 31, 1896, with the first performance occurring on January 7, 1897, with the Italian opera, La Gioconda, by Amilcare Ponchielli.

The theatre’s architectural style is considered typically Renaissance. The roofing tiles were imported from Alsace, the steel walls from Glasgow, Scotland and the Carrara marble for the stairs, statues and columns, from Italy. The dome is covered with 36,000 decorated ceramic tiles painted in the colors of the national flag of Brazil. The interior furnishing came from France in the Louis Quinze style. Italian artist Domenico de Angelis the Younger painted the panels that decorate the ceilings of the auditorium and of the audience chamber. The curtain, with its painting “Meeting of the Waters”, was originally created in Paris by Crispim do Amaral. The theatre’s 198 chandeliers were imported from Italy, including 32 of Murano glass.

Read more on TheGuardian.com – Manaus’s opulent Amazon Theatre and Wikipedia Amazon Theatre (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Global Passport Power Rank - Travel Risk Map - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). Photos by Wikimedia Commons. If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.




Recommended posts:

Share this post: (Please note data protection regulations before using buttons)

Veszprém in Hungary

Veszprém in Hungary

[caption id="attachment_232189" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Veszprém Castle © Csendesmark/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Veszprém (German: Weißbrunn) is one of the oldest urban areas in Hungary, and a city with county rights. It lies approximately 15 km (9 mi) north of the Lake Balaton. It is the administrative center of the county (comitatus or 'megye') of the same name. The city can be reached via the M7 highway and Road 8. It can also be reached from Győr via Road 82 and from Székesfehérvár via Ro...

[ read more ]

Pompano Beach in Florida

Pompano Beach in Florida

[caption id="attachment_209218" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Friejose/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Pompano Beach is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States, along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, just to the north of Fort Lauderdale. The nearby Hillsboro Inlet forms part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. The city's population is at 112,000. Located 35 miles north of Miami, it is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area, which is home to an estimated 6.2 million people. Pompano Beach is curre...

[ read more ]

The Valle Riviera in Switzerland

The Valle Riviera in Switzerland

[caption id="attachment_153938" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Iragna © biascaturismo.ch[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Descending from the North, the Riviera suddenly opens up, as the alpine valleys of Leventina and Blenio come together. From Biasca, at the end of the River Moesa, there are, on both sides of the valley, picturesque villages that give the visitor an historical vision of an important past, together with the image of modern industry. Romanesque churches and towers, stately homes of nobles past, hamlets nestl...

[ read more ]

Le Bon Marché, the first department store in the world

Le Bon Marché, the first department store in the world

[caption id="attachment_161307" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Le Bon Marché © François Rejeté[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Le Bon Marché ("the good market", or "the good deal" in French) is the name of one of the most famous department stores in Paris, France. It is sometimes regarded as the first department store in the world. Although this depends on what is meant by 'department store', it may have had the first specially-designed building for a store in Paris. The founder was Aristide Boucicaut. The store was fou...

[ read more ]

Address Downtown in Dubai

Address Downtown in Dubai

[caption id="attachment_209816" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © flickr.com - Marcus/cc-by-sa-2.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Address Downtown, formerly The Address Downtown Dubai, is a 63-story, 302.2 m (991 ft) supertall hotel and residential skyscraper in the Burj Dubai Development Area of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It was built by Emaar Properties Group. The tower is the twenty-second tallest building in Dubai. It is a tall structure within the massive development named Downtown Dubai, which includes the centerpiece s...

[ read more ]

Èze on the French Riviera

Èze on the French Riviera

[caption id="attachment_236236" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Èze and Cap Ferrat, seen from Grande Corniche © Tobi 87/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Èze is a seaside commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southeastern France. It is located on the French Riviera, 8.5 km (5.2 mi) to the northeast of Nice and 4.5 km (2.7 mi) to the west of Monaco. In 2018, Èze had a population of 2,225. Its inhabitants are known as Ezasques (masculine and feminine). Èze-Village can be ...

[ read more ]

Theme Week Colombia - Medellín

Theme Week Colombia - Medellín

[caption id="attachment_235342" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Downtown Medellin © JIMENA MARTIINEZ/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Medellín (officially the Municipality of Medellín; Spanish: Municipio de Medellín) is the second-largest city in Colombia after Bogotá, and the capital of the department of Antioquia. It is located in the Aburrá Valley, a central region of the Andes Mountains, in northwestern South America. According to the National Administrative Department of Statistics, the city had an estimated po...

[ read more ]

Clearwater Beach in Florida

Clearwater Beach in Florida

[caption id="attachment_168994" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Shannon Leigh Sandusky/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Clearwater Beach includes a resort area and a residential area on the Gulf of Mexico in Pinellas County on the west central coast of Florida. Located just west over the Intracoastal Waterway by way of the Clearwater Memorial Causeway from the city of Clearwater, of which it is part. Clearwater Beach is characterized by white sand beaches stretching for 2.5 miles (4 km) along the Gulf and sits on a bar...

[ read more ]

Khreshchatyk Boulevard in Kyiv

Khreshchatyk Boulevard in Kyiv

[caption id="attachment_165378" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Tiia Monto/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Khreshchatyk (Ukrainian: Хрещатик) is the main street of Kyiv, Ukraine. The street has a length of 1.3 km (0.81 mi). It stretches from the European Square (northeast) through the Maidan and to Bessarabska Square (southwest) where the Besarabsky Market is located. Along the street are the offices of the Kiev City Council which contains both the city's council and the state administration, the Main Post Off...

[ read more ]

Stiltsville in Florida

Stiltsville in Florida

[caption id="attachment_210046" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Stiltsville as seen from Cape Florida Light © Mr3641[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Stiltsville is a group of wood stilt houses located one mile south of Cape Florida, on sand banks of the Safety Valve on the edge of Biscayne Bay in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The structures stand on wood or reinforced concrete pilings, generally ten feet above the shallow water, which varies from one to three feet deep at low tide. Most sources claim the first stilt shack was built in...

[ read more ]

Return to TopReturn to Top
Everglades National Park World heritage plaque © Daniel Schwen/cc-by-sa-4.0
The Everglades National Park in Florida

Everglades National Park is a U.S. National Park in Florida that protects the southern 20 percent of the original Everglades....

Building between First and Second Avenues © Beyond My Ken/cc-by-sa-4.0
East Village in Manhattan

East Village is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Its boundary to the north is Gramercy...

Place des Vosges © Gryffindor
The Place des Vosges in Paris

The Place des Vosges is the oldest planned square in Paris and one of the finest in the city. It...

Schließen