The Liceo, the oldest theater in the city, turns 150 years old

The Liceo is located on the corner of Buenos Aires between Rivadavia and Paraná because, in the center of the city, the theater was reached on horseback and the animal rested in a palenque while, indoors, there was a show. Today cars, subways and buses have replaced the horses but the Liceo is still there, with its intact structure, and also recently restored, to celebrate its 150 years of history.

The celebration of the century and a half of life of the oldest theater in the city will be this Tuesday (July 26) with the return to that stage of Piaf, the work interpreted by Elena Roger, directed by the English Jamie Lloyd. In that same room, the musical about the iconic French singer, He had a successful season in 2009/2010 which he promises to repeat this time.

On Friday, July 26, 1872, the hall was inaugurated, a few blocks from the National Congress building. Its first name was Modern and then many others followed.

Depending on the era and the most represented genre, they were renamed El Dorado, Goldoni (when it was in the hands of Italian emigrants), Progreso, Rivadavia. Until 1918 came the name it will keep until today: Liceo.

Like many other spaces, prior to being a theater, the property occupied by the Lyceum was a vacant lot, which was regularly used by the Buckingham Circus to set up its big top. It was a Frenchman, Tourneville, who bought the land and built a room in 1872, intended for variety, fashion shows of the era.

The origins

The functions had a reputation for being spicy, in an environment that was not conducive to its proximity to the Iglesia de la Piedad. Complaints from neighbors were not long in coming and there were even masses of protest from La Piedad, who This did not prevent the Lyceum from experiencing a period of great popularity, between 1880 and 1914.

However, the oldest room in Buenos Aires was in danger of disappearing more than once. One was in the late 1970s, when the specter of demolition loomed. Another, in 1993, when its then owner, the entrepreneur Buddy Day, asked for help to save the Lyceum. Due to the entrepreneur’s personal urgencies, the theater was about to be sold to become a horse racing betting hall.

Producer Carlos Rottemberg took care of the theater which became part of the Multiteatro group and Buenos Aires was able to keep the room with so much history. In 1986 the City Museum awarded him the recognition of “Living testimony of the memory of the City”.

In a century and a half of existence, many artists, companies and shows have crossed its stage. The company Orfilia Rico appeared there in 1903, with Those of Barrancoby Gregorio de Laferrere; and also Dove verbena, by the Spaniard Tomás Bretón, in its first performance in South America.

cradle of the great

In addition, the Podestà acted as well as other brothers, César and Pepe Ratti, who starred in a public phenomenon with The wooden virginby Ricardo Hickens, in the 1930s.

At that point, They had placed a wooden replica of the Virgin in the atrium of the room, like the one sculpted by the protagonist during the performance, and the entrance to the theater was transformed into a place of pilgrimage. Paradoxically, a few meters from La Piedad, where decades ago masses against some shows were officiated.

Over the years they passed to the Lyceum Angelina Pagano, Paulina Singerman, Pierina Dealessi, Josefina Diaz, Salvador Rossich, Luis Arata and Luisa Vehilamong others.

For the then young actresses Herminia and Eva Franco, in the late 1920s, their father, actor and businessman José Franco, had built a couple of apartments in the upper part of the theater so that his famous daughters would not they had to go to the theater.

Pinti beats records

Enrique Pinti was perhaps one of the artists who spent the most time in Liceo with his show, Creole sauceit premiered in 1985 and lasted for more than ten seasons, 3,000 shows and three million viewers. Unfortunately Pinti died last March and will not see the room embellished for his anniversary.

The last work that went through the Liceo phase, before this reopening, was Cabaretthe musical classic interpreted by Florencia Peña and Mike Amigorena. With the function of March 15, 2020 and the arrival of the pandemic, the theater has long lowered the curtain.

“Like human life, the bigger it is, the more the pandemic affects it. Same thing happened in high school with the two long years closed. I put it on my shoulder to make it beautiful again,” he declared in November 2021 José Luis Ciarma, manager of the Multiteatro groupwho took care of all the restructuring and enhancement of the theater for this new stage.

The remodeling

Together with Carlos Rottemberg and his son Tomás Rottemberg, also a producer, they proposed to enhance the room for its historical importance and the sentimental value left as a mark by the artists who have passed through it.

According to Ciarma, in these six months, the most important works they are not visible to the naked eye because they are structural, consistent with a building that is more than a century oldsuch as the change of pipes, ceilings and ventilation according to the new covid standards.

But the marbles, the floors of the room, the bronzes were also polished and painting works were carried out, both inside and outside. The tables and chairs (which share the space with the stalls of the hall) were removed to work on the ceiling frescoes, a delicate task that He had the collaboration of specialists from the Teatro Colón.

“All the lighting has been modernized, both in the room and in the street, respecting the aesthetics of vintage lamps inside and street lamps outside, but passing them to the LED system“, says Ciarma. In addition, the carpets have been renewed and a digital screen has been placed in the ticket office.

Another important fact is that the gathering has been recovered, an upper space in the room that has been closed for decades. Tickets to see any show from that reclaimed space they will be sold at 1,000 pesos, for children under 25, thanks to the “Tertulia Joven” initiative, a way to encourage young people to attend the theater.

For this staging of the oldest private theater in Latin America (the Ouro Preto, in Brazil, and the Solís, in Montevideo, are older but both are state theaters), the vast majority of the arrangements were made with the team of the company of Multiteatro workers. “Out of a question of trust and love for the theater”, says Ciarma. “Something that deserves a room like the Lyceum”.

CJL