By Valentina Salinas Welsh

 

Inaugurated in 1857 with Giuseppe Verdi’s Ernani, the Teatro Municipal de Santiago is the second oldest theatre in Latin America, following the Teatro Solís in Montevideo. From its inception, it became the cultural and social centre of Santiago: at that time, the Santiago aristocracy played a significant role and contributed to the burgeoning cultural landscape it offered. Much of the social activities, such as the salons and dances of the era, largely moved to this new cultural epicentre.

 

Its construction was commissioned in 1847 when President Manuel Bulnes granted the land where the University of San Felipe was located. In 1852, he instructed the French architect Claude-François Brunet de Baines to design it, and in 1853, construction began, just 35 years after Chile had fully achieved its independence in 1818. The Teatro Municipal de Santiago emerged as a grand republican and intellectual gesture: the tradition of holding the presidential gala reflects this. This event takes place every 18th September since its inauguration, marking and celebrating Chile’s independence from Spanish rule.

 

Located on Agustinas Street in the heart of Santiago, within the historic centre, the building’s façade is in the French Neoclassical style — although some of its halls are in other architectural styles such as Baroque and Art Nouveau — featuring all the characteristics of the style: symmetry, proportion, use of columns, pediments, friezes, and arches, as well as the implementation of large staircases and vestibules.

 

 

Much has been said about the theatre’s tumultuous history, including the significant earthquakes of 1906 and 2010 and the fires of 1870, 1924, and 2013, among various other incidents and repairs over its more than 165 years of existence. Thus, the history of the Teatro Municipal is marked by resilience and reinvention, successfully adapting to contemporary societal challenges through various areas of work that will be discussed further.

 

Many notable figures in music, the performing arts, and opera have graced the Teatro Municipal de Santiago. In the past and present centuries, artists such as dancers Rudolf Nureyev, Alicia Alonso, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Margot Fonteyn, and Anna Pavlova; singers Ramón Vinay and Plácido Domingo; pianists Arthur Rubinstein, Claudio Arrau, Yevgeny Kissin; violinists Yehudi Menuhin and Isaac Stern; and actresses Sarah Bernhardt and Adelaide Ristori have performed there.

 

Today, the Teatro Municipal de Santiago houses three permanent artistic ensembles: the Santiago Philharmonic Orchestra (1955), the Santiago Ballet (1959), and the Municipal Choir of Santiago (1982). In addition to these long-standing ensembles, it has an artistic training area with its Ballet School in partnership with the Paris Opera Ballet School; the Ibáñez Atkinson Young Artist Program (FIA-YAP), aimed at developing the skills of exceptionally talented young Chilean singers; the Municipal Chamber Orchestra of Santiago; and the Crecer Cantando choral programme. Additionally, there is the Performing Arts Documentation Centre (Centro DAE).

 

 

Intangible Heritages of the Performing Arts from the Teatro Municipal: The Production Factory from Sketch to Performance

 

The Teatro Municipal de Santiago boasts a technical team that is a living intangible heritage, responsible for producing all the shows. It is a production theatre, comprised of various workshops dedicated to realising its productions, with teams that facilitate the creation of all the elements necessary for the director’s vision to come to fruition: a production chain where communication and teamwork are essential.

 

Following the specific design and production planning, the traditional path of constructing and implementing a particular work begins with the Scenic Realisation Workshop, which covers construction, sculpture, and props for the productions. The Painting Workshop then takes these elements and simultaneously develops the backdrop paintings.

 

Parallel to or following this, the Costume and Characterisation Workshop, working with the designer, progresses in finalising the designs and practical elements, constructing prototypes and final costumes for the production. Finally, the Makeup area plays a crucial role in integrating the work’s imagery into the characters within the created environment.

 

All these elements come together on Stage, where Lighting, Sound, Ambient, Stage Machinery, Hand Props, and the inclusion of audiovisual elements give the final form to the entire production on-site.

 

 

These teams work together with the directors, scenographers, visual artists, lighting designers, and costume designers of each production from sketches: for the characters, all elements are specifically made for the performers in each production (shoes, costumes, and makeup and characterisation are created specifically for the cast of each production).

 

The stage of the Teatro has a depth of 18 metres and a width of 22 metres. The grid supporting the suspended elements of the set is 20 metres above the floor and includes 47 manual counterweight lines, plus three motorised light bridges. The stage also features a modular floor with a hydraulic lift system.

 

Transformation from Tradition

 

According to the Teatro Municipal de Santiago’s general objectives, one of them is to develop and disseminate high-quality artistic programming in areas such as lyrical, musical, and performing arts. This objective is based on the work of its permanent ensembles and collaboration with artists and technical professionals in its production workshops.

 

The theatre also aims to provide a meeting and exchange place for artistic experiences and strives to ensure access and audience development, so more people can enjoy and participate in its artistic and cultural project.

 

It was within this framework that the digital platform Municipal Delivery emerged during the Covid-19 pandemic, offering some of its productions for free and open access. The results were surprising: in 2023, 72% of the audiences attending the theatre’s various seasons were first-time visitors.

 

 

Openness, inclusion, and diversity in its audiences are some of the issues Carmen Gloria Larenas, the General Director since 2019, has been driving. In an interview for Ópera Actual in May 2023, she reflects on the pandemic:

 

“The challenge was to remain visible. We achieved this through teamwork and the support of staff, the audience, and our sponsors. We have been able to turn limitations into opportunities. With Massenet’s Manon, a co-production with Oviedo and Tenerife premiered in November (2022), we returned to full normalcy and saw that the path we had taken allowed us to recognise what the Theatre could achieve without compromising its sustainability. Today, our greatest internal pressure is to execute each project with excellence. Of course, we would like to have more venues and a larger budget, and we are paving that way. The key is the balance between quality and sustainability. Additionally, as a legacy of the pandemic, we have focused on the audience: this theatre is for everyone. The diversity that now exists in our auditorium is also reflected in the programming.” — Carmen Gloria Larenas, General Director of Teatro Municipal de Santiago

 

Another objective, addressed since 2005, is audience development through the Pequeño Municipal programme, which targets school and family audiences. It includes opera, ballet, and concert performances in a small format. The Crecer Cantando programme, founded in 1995, aims to inspire and connect children with choral singing and music. Its community and audience area primarily focuses on opening up training spaces and engaging with different audiences, with one of the best examples being the discussions held for each season’s performances.

 

 

The Teatro Municipal de Santiago aims to create and educate new audiences to include them in the living tradition of opera and the performing arts. The model is one of expansion, preserving its historic audience while emphasising the preservation, valuation, transmission, and revitalisation of its cultural heritage, both material and immaterial.

 

The institution also addresses parity issues, perhaps already as a legacy of the historic milestone in Chile of the signing of the law that allowed women’s suffrage, which took place at the theatre itself on 8th January 1949. Among the initiatives in this regard is the HUB of Female Conductors at the Teatro Municipal, whose first edition was held in 2022: a space where female conductors can share and work together, enhance each other, and collaborate through activities such as masterclasses, conversations, talks, and, of course, concerts.

 

The Theatre has also made efforts to explore the cutting edge of stage technologies; whether through productions with special effects, the integration of large-scale scenic backdrop screens, or multimedia projections, among other innovations.

 

 

More recently, the groundbreaking XR Stage initiative stands out, where the theatre’s technical teams are trained in managing virtual simulation technology for its stage. This project is under development in collaboration with other theatres in the Opera Latinoamérica network, the Centre for Technological Revolution in Creative Industries (Chile), and supported by Corfo, and could potentially revolutionise the performing arts on the continent and globally in the medium term.

 

Thus, the Teatro Municipal de Santiago maintains a dialogue between transformation and tradition: its stage witnesses both innovation and the continuation of the artistic legacy of the performing arts in Chile. At the intersection of tradition and avant-garde, there is space for the contemporary.