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

Caracas Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (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 northern p ...

and

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

, 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 considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

after the Néstor Kirchner Cultural Centre at

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

. 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 Venezuelans, Venezuelan pianist, composer, soprano, and conductor. Over the course of her 54-year concert career, she became an internationally renowned v ...

. 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 and Pedro Antonio Ríos Reyna, respectively). Its spaces are also shared by the National Theater Company of Venezuela and the Monte Ávila Editores bookstore (Librerías del Sur). The artistic director of the theater is the Venezuelan conductor Rodolfo Saglimbeni.

History

In the 1970s, Pedro Antonio Ríos Reyna 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 Dietrich Kunckel, Tomás Lugo, and Jesús Sandoval. 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 de Echenagucia (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 ...

Resident groups

The following are resident performing arts groups: * Teresa Carreño Opera Choir * Teresa Carreño Ballet directed up to 2002 by choreographer Vicente Nebrada * National Philharmonic Orchestra of Venezuela.

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, making it an ideal venue for

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of Musical instrument, instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a Great chamber, palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music ...

, duos and solo instrument concerts. 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: 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 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, Jorge Pizzani and Vincenzo Gemito.

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

The Teresa Carreño Cultural Complex official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Teresa Carreno Cultural Complex Government buildings completed in 1983 Concert halls in Venezuela Theatres in Venezuela Theatres in Caracas Tourist attractions in Caracas Music venues completed in 1983 Opera houses in Venezuela 1983 establishments in Venezuela Theatres completed in 1983 Brutalist architecture