Palacio de Bellas Artes
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The Palacio de Bellas Artes ("Palace of Fine Arts") is the premier opera house of Mexico City. It was designed by the Italian architect Adamo Boari in 1901 but construction was not completed until 1934, in a spectacular art deco interiors, and for the majestic art nouveau exterior. The weight of the building is so massive that it has been sinking a few centimeters yearly since the completion of its construction.
The construction site was chosen by President Porfirio Díaz because it was located in downtown (by then, Mexico City's financial and hosting district), on an elegant park promenade, and face to face with the tallest buildings in the city from the early 1920s to the late 1930s. The building is famous for both its extravagant art nouveau exterior in imported Italian white marble as well as its murals by Diego Rivera, Rufino Tamayo, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and José Clemente Orozco.
Rivera's Man, Controller of the Universe mural was originally painted for the Rockefeller Center in New York City but Rockefeller ordered it destroyed for being too radical. Rivera repainted it here in 1934 and named it Man at the Crossroads.
The theatre is used for classical music, opera and dance, notably the Baile Folklórico. A distinctive feature of the theatre is its stained glass curtain depicting a volcano and the valley of Mexico.
Maria Callas sang in several productions at the Palacio early in her career, and recordings exist of several of her performances here. Palacio de Bellas Artes has been used as the site of wakes for artists of Mexican national importance such as Frida Kahlo in 1954 and María Félix in 2002. The Palacio hosted the North American premiere of the film Frida.
The Palacio has two museums: the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes and the Museo de la Arquitectura. Metro Bellas Artes is located alongside.
[edit] History
During the late 19th century and going into the first years of the 20th century, during Porfirio Díaz's 30-year rule of Mexico, there was a marked tendency to imitate European art, styles and customs. Following this tendency, a plan for a new Teatro Nacional (National Theater) was laid out and construction of a new building began on October 1, 1904. The plans were drawn up by Adamo Boari, using state-of-the-art technology as was common in European theatres.
Construction was originally scheduled to be finished by 1908; however, it was delayed by problems with Mexico City's soil, notoriously muddy in composition and which led to the gradual subsidence of the building; matters were further complicated by the beginning of the Mexican Revolution in 1910.
Boari left Mexico in 1916 and construction was virtually stopped until 1932, when works were resumed under Mexican architect Federico Mariscal; completion took place in 1934. The square with gardens and pegasus statues, devised by Boari himself, was not completed until 1994.
