Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires

Teatro Colón

Source

The Teatro Colón is one of the biggest attractions within the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, which you cannot miss going to during your stay in the country or the capital city, alone. What would be even better would be to go to a performance (there are performance of each and every type - from the ballet to classical music), but obviously if you had plans for a more relaxed visit, however, I wouldn't go to an Iron Maiden concert, for example.

I didn't see the theatre up close, because, as you can probably guess, I was busy looking at everything else around it and I never ended up going in, as I couldn't put my plans to travel from one country to another on hold. But anyway, on my last day in Buenos Aires, hurrying and running around, I managed to arrive at the theatre for the last guided tour of the day to enjoy it in its full splendour with one of my friends, despite my friend being certain that we wouldn't arrive on time and us arguing briefly. This was due to finding out that some guys at my university (Universidad de Belgrano) had to sign a document for me confirming the the end of my studies there, and they were doing nothing more than driving me completely crazy. I couldn't believe that on my last day in Buenos Aires I was having to wait until 5pm to sort out some problems with paperwork...

Source

Finally, I attended a Jorge Drexler concert, which I found out about thanks to a friend and it was an amazing feeling that I will never forget. I really like that kind of music, and to see it with all of the acoustics and everything that there is in Teatro Colón was something incredible, which surpassed all of my expectations. I am writing all of this whilst I'm listening to some of his songs and it's bringing back good memories, like the song, "El otro lado del río", with him riding his motorbike along it, which he also sang at the concert.

Also, on my last day just before coming back to Spain, I took one of the guided visits. Here, I will leave you some of the current tour times and the location where you can enquire about it.

The opening hours of the theatre are as follows: Monday to Saturday, 10am-8pm; Sunday, 10am-5pm. Remember that on days where an event is taking place, the last half an hour will be exclusively dedicated to ticket sales for that day. Ticket inquiries can be made at the box office or even by telephone; the numbers for which are also in the link above in case anyone needs them, but there should be no problem with them, as the numbers are currently correct.

Source

The entrance fee for this guided visit through the whole theatre cost, I think, around 300 Argentine Pesos, but I am not 100% sure on that, if it is correct though, it works out at around 12€ or something like that. The visits run on a frequent schedule - they take you around the building, showing you the facilities and explaining their backstories to you. During the approximately two-hour visit, they show you the most important and the most historic places, the great artists who have spent time there, the building's history, and, the best places to sit as an audience member. The latter was the most interesting, as you supposedly have a better view of the stage and the artists from up above at the sides of the stage; on the occasion when I visited, I saw them doing a scenery change, which sometimes made it extremely difficult to listen to the guide, who, at the same time, was trying to tell us interesting things about the stage and the auditorium.

On the other hand, it has to be mentioned that the tour does not take you past the main stage, which, in my opinion, is a bit of a let-down, and also maybe they spent too long telling us some things that were not particularly interesting, like, for example, whether the things we were seeing were made of a certain type of marble or carpet... a thousand and one things that ended up seeming a bit superfluous.

Apart from this, the tour took us past many places of interest, like one of the main atriums, where the visit ends, which is one of the stops we liked the most. This is the best place in the theatre, as this is where esteemed citizens of Argentina, and those of other countries, come to see all manner of performances, and my friend and I took some really good photos here; although, the guide was trying to get us to hurry up... typical behaviour for tours of this kind, sadly.

Source

The music video for Jorge Drexler's, "Mi guitarra y vos", for example, was recorded at this very Teatro Colón. If you watch it, it's there that you can see the full magnitude and scale of the building, and appreciate its acoustics, which are found among some of the best in the world, and is among the top three theatres in the world, which endorses it without the need for me to tell you myself how spectacular it is.

The tickets to see an event like the ballet, for example, which my Mexican friend, Lia, went to see, are not expensive if you book them in advance and choose one of the seats situated further back - they are only around 200 to 300 Pesos, which is around 10€ to 12€. From this base price, you can spend as much as you want, according to the financial situation you happen to find yourself in. Although, mind you, if you choose to sit that far away from the stage, it will be really difficult for you to see or hear much.

In short, I must tell you that I really liked this place - the theatre is situated right by Avenida 9 de Julio, next to the Obelisk - although it is much more recommendable that you visit it to see any kind of live performance, like the ballet, a concert or a theatre piece, because the guided tour, despite them showing you things you didn't know about, telling you about famous individuals who have walked the halls, showing you expensive costumes used in theatre works, was not all that it cracked up to be. The best thing, in my eyes, although it's difficult to compare, would be going to a concert, like Jorge Drexler's.

Source

Best wishes to you all, and, for sure, we will see each other in Buenos Aires. Don't miss out on visiting this illustrious and important place during your visit to the city. Also, you can see the obelisk, the avenida in all its splendour, or Calle Florida, which is situated close by, where you can go shopping or eat some good food. There, you will also find tango dinner shows and a thousand and one really interesting things to see/do/explore, which I recommend earnestly for your stay, be it long or short, in this beautiful city.