The Teresa Carreño Cultural Complex (''Complejo Cultural Teresa Carreño''), also known as Teresa Carreño Theater (''Teatro Teresa Carreño''), is the most important theatre of

Caracas Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...

and

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

, where performances include symphonic and popular concerts, opera, ballet and plays. It is the second largest theater in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

after the Néstor Kirchner Cultural Centre at

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

. The theatre was built on a lot and named after the Venezuelan pianist

Teresa Carreño María Teresa Gertrudis de Jesús Carreño García (December 22, 1853June 12, 1917) was a Venezuelan pianist, soprano, composer, and conductor. Over the course of her 54-year concert career, she became an internationally renowned virtuoso pia ...

. It is located in the cultural district of the city: Bellas Artes. It houses two concert halls: the ''José Félix Ribas'' and the ''Ríos Reyna'' (named after

José Félix Ribas José Félix Ribas (; Caracas, 19 September 1775 – Tucupido, 31 January 1815) was a Venezuelan independence leader and hero of the Venezuelan War of Independence. Early life Ribas was the last of eleven sons, born to a prominent Caraca ...

and

Pedro Antonio Ríos Reyna Pedro Antonio Ríos Reyna ( Colón, Táchira State, Venezuela. November 16, 1905 - February 13, 1971, New York City, U.S.) was one of the most important Venezuelan classical musicians. Spent his childhood in Caracas and studied at the Fermín T ...

, respectively). The following are resident performing arts groups: * Teresa Carreño Opera Choir * Teresa Carreño Ballet directed up to 2002 by choreographer

Vicente Nebrada Vicente Balbino Nebreda Arias (Caracas, Venezuela, March 31, 1920 – ibid, May 26, 2002) was a choreographer and dancer who was considered a Venezuelan pioneer for dance during the 1940s. He was part of the Cátedra de Ballet del Liceo Andrés B ...

* National Philharmonic Orchestra of Venezuela. Its spaces are also shared by the National Theater Company of Venezuela and the

Monte Ávila Editores Monte Ávila Editores is the largest and most important publishing house in Venezuela. Between 1980 and 2000 it published over 300 titles, largely by Venezuelan authors, producing over 1.2m copies. Founded in 1968 on the initiative of author Sim� ...

bookstore (Librerías del Sur). The artistic director of the theater is the Venezuelan conductor

Rodolfo Saglimbeni Rodolfo Saglimbeni (born 8 December 1962, in Barquisimeto, Venezuela) is a conductor. He studied music in Venezuela and then at the Royal Academy of Music of London with Colin Metters, John Carewe and George Hurst (conductor), George Hurst, obtai ...

History

In the 1970s,

presented a plan to build a theatre to serve as the residence of the Venezuela Symphony Orchestra. The Simón Bolivar Center expanded the project so that the center would serve multiple uses. The funds for construction were granted in September 1970, and the architects were Tomás Lugo, Jesús Sandoval, and Dietrich Kunckel. The theatre was inaugurated in two phases: the ''José Félix Ribas Hall'' in February 1976, followed by the ''Ríos Reyna Hall'' and the rest of the complex on 19 April 1983. The center facilities have been expanded with two exhibition halls, one dedicated to the pianist

and another one to the composer

Reynaldo Hahn Reynaldo Hahn (; 9 August 1874 – 28 January 1947) was a Venezuelan-born French composer, conductor, music critic, and singer. He is best known for his songs – ''mélodies'' – of which he wrote more than 100. Hahn was born in Caracas b ...

Performance venues

The Teresa Carreño Theatre is an architectonical and cultural masterpiece of

. It covers a surface of and has a completed area of over . Enormous columns and hexagonal roofs in a harmonic overlaid position, integrate the majestic expression of joint architecture and pluralist nature, making it a unique theatre. * The ''Ríos Reyna Hall'' holds 2,400 people. It is the stage for symphonic and multi-genre concerts, operas, Broadway musicals, and the most important ballet company of the city. * The ''José Félix Ribas Hall'' was designed for symphonic and chamber music. Given its intimacy, it could be described as a studio space. It takes the form of a Greek semicircular theatre, a space of 507.5 square meters, a lobby of 160 square meters and capacity for 440 people. It was the official building of the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar (Venezuela's youth orchestra) from 1976 until the opening of the Inter-American Center for Social Action through Music in 2007.

Artwork

The Theater has extraordinary decoration, with fine pieces of artwork. * There are some major master pieces from the Venezuelan sculptor

Jesús Rafael Soto Jesús Rafael Soto (June 5, 1923 – January 17, 2005) was a Venezuelan op and kinetic artist, a sculptor and a painter. His works can be found in the collections of the main museums of the world, including Tate (London), Museum Ludwig (Germany ...

: white vibrant cubes on yellow projection (in the ceiling of the entrance of the Ríos Reyna Hall), vibrant Buckets on white and black progression (in the parking, in front of the José Félix Ribas Hall), vibrant Pyramids (acoustic ceiling of the José Félix Ribas Hall), black Scripture on white bottom and fire-resistant drop curtain (drop curtains of the Ríos Reyna Hall). * Pedro Basalo created the ''Bust of Teresa Carreño'' located in ''Cellar 1'' area. *

Harry Abend Harry Abend, OFM (5 May 193718 January 2021) was a Polish-born Venezuelan sculptor and architect. Abend immigrated to Venezuela in 1948 and embarked on his sculpture practice in 1958 under the guidance of Miguel Arroyo while also studying archi ...

developed the ''Relief mural on inclined screens'' (in the troncopyramidal peak of the scene of the Ríos Reyna). * There are also major artists with a presence in the Cultural Complex, such as Erling Oloe,

Colette Dellozane Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (; 28 January 1873 – 3 August 1954), known mononymously as Colette, was a French author and woman of letters. She was also a mime, actress, and journalist. Colette is best known in the English-speaking world for her ...

Jorge Pizzani Jorge Pizzani is a Venezuelan visual artist, born in Acarigua, Venezuela on October 14, 1949.'' ''He currently works in Caracas and Turgua, Venezuela . He studied at Instituto de Diseño Fundación Neumann, Caracas. He spent working seasons in ...

and

Vincenzo Gemito Vincenzo Gemito (July 16, 1852 – March 1, 1929) was an Italian sculptor and artist. Although he worked in various studios of well-known artists in his native Naples, Rome and Paris, he is considered to have largely been self-taught, the reason ...

Teatro Teresa Carreño Ballet

It is one of the stable organizations (alongside the Chorus) created from the start of the theatre in 1979. Its debut was in 1980, and since then it has played several important ballets such as The Nutcracker, Guaraira Repano, Swan Lake, Carmen, and others. It is currently composed of around 30 dancers from all over the country. Its current choreographer is Laura Fiorucci, and the main coordinator of the Ballet is Luis Penso.

References

External links