Background The former Teatro de los Caños del Peral was a theatre, built over an earlier
corral de comedias, and opened in 1738 under the reign of
King Philip V. It got its name from the nearby
Fountain of the Pear Tree Canals. The theatre was demolished in 1817 to clear the space for the current Teatro Real. At its peak, in the last quarter of the 19th century, the Teatro hosted world renowned artists such as
Adelaide Borghi,
Marie Sasse,
Adelina Patti,
Christina Nilsson,
Luisa Tetrazzini,
Mattia Battistini,
Julián Gayarre, Angelo Masini,
Francesco Tamagno and
Enrico Tamberlick. In 1917, the
Ballets Russes of
Diaghilev performed in the theatre with the presence of
Nijinsky and
Stravinsky.
As a concert hall In December 1925 a Royal Order ordered its activities to be discontinued owing to the damage that the construction of the
Metro de Madrid had caused to the building. The government set out to restore it and ordered numerous projects to be drawn out for its renovation, such as that from architect Antonio Flórez Urdapilleta, who proposed a monumental remodeling of the building. However, the
Civil War and the post-war financial difficulties prevented the completion of these projects and led to a simple restoration, sponsored by the
Juan March Institute, and carried out first by the architect Manuel Gonzalez Valcárcel, and later by architects Miguel Verdú Belmonte and Francisco Rodriguez Partearroyo. The theatre reopened on 13 October 1966 as a concert hall as well as the main concert venue for the
Spanish National Orchestra and the
RTVE Symphony Orchestra. The reopening was celebrated with a concert of the Spanish National Orchestra, conducted by
Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, in which it was performed
Beethoven's
Symphony No. 9 –together with the
Orfeón Donostiarra– and
Manuel de Falla's
Homenajes. The venue closed for renovations with a last concert by the Spanish National Orchestra on 13 October 1988.
Remodeling with the royal box in the center. (2013) Starting on 2 January 1991, the house was remodeled to host opera again. The building was completed in late 1995, then the process of technical, administrative, artistic and functional organization began which led to the opening of the theatre by
King Juan Carlos I and
Queen Sofía on 11 October 1997. The opera program performed at the reopening was
El sombrero de tres picos and
La vida breve by Manuel de Falla, which was immediately followed by the world premiere of the opera
Divinas Palabras by
Antón García Abril –actually commissioned to open the house– with
Plácido Domingo in the cast. ==Productions==