Amazon Theatre, Manaus. August 2000.
As part of our second trip to Brazil, which was all about the rainforest, we stopped off in Manaus because it was the place to catch boats/flights to other places in the region. My memories of Manaus are absolutely bleak. It reminded me of staying in Johannesburg in that we had to stay in a "safe suburb" out of the city center. What kind of city is so dangerous it is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED not to stay downtown? The "bad years living in Washington Heights" hat was firmly back on my head for a couple of days.
The only thing to see in Manaus was the Opera House, a folly built during its very brief rubber boom:
The Amazonas Theatre was built during the Belle Époque at a time when fortunes were made in the rubber boom. Construction of the Amazon Theatre was first proposed in 1881 by a member of the local House of Representatives, Antonio Jose Fernandes Júnior, who envisioned a "jewel" in the heart of the Amazon rainforest
...
By 1895, when the masonry work and exterior were completed, the decoration of the interior and the installation of electric lighting could begin more rapidly. The theatre was inaugurated on December 31, 1896, with the first performance occurring on January 7, 1897, with the Italian opera, La Gioconda, by Amilcare Ponchielli.
(Wikipedia)
We didn't take a tour of the building because I assume we were unable to on short notice? I only know that our one foray into downtown Manaus had us taking a few exterior photos of the theatre and then coming back to the safety of the suburbs. There was literally NOTHING to do in Manaus. The "opera house in the jungle" does attract big names for yearly festivals just so people can say "I played in the Amazon", but when we visited, it presented itself as a white elephant building in an unremarkable city carved out of the rainforest a century before.
I wonder if the opera houses of Dubai and Muscat will similarly end up as forlorn in the future if those cities go bust in the post-petroleum world? Both are palaces of luxury built in highly unlikely venues. Cost is never an object in such vanity projects.
Look at Teatro Amazonas "luxe" features of the time:
The theatre's architectural style is considered typically Renaissance Revival. The roofing tiles were imported from Alsace, the steel walls from Glasgow, Scotland and the Carrara marble for the stairs, statues and columns, from Italy. The dome is covered with 36,000 decorated ceramic tiles painted in the colors of the national flag of Brazil. The interior furnishing came from France in the Louis Quinze style. Italian artist Domenico de Angelis the Younger painted the panels that decorate the ceilings of the auditorium and of the audience chamber. The curtain, with its painting "Meeting of the Waters", was originally created in Paris by Crispim do Amaral. The theatre's 198 chandeliers were imported from Italy, including 32 of Murano glass.
(Wikipedia)
Was the theatre, like some big bank or corporation, simply "too big to fail"? Had so much money gone into it and so much effort to make a "statement" that it had to be preserved at any cost? When we viewed it, it looked forgotten, but maybe it was just the heat of the tropical midday sun washing out the colors of the building. I left the place thinking it was idiotic. Manaus was a dump. At least Dubai and Muscat were very nice cities (for now).
We weren't in that part of Brazil to see an opera house anyway. We left Manaus to see the rainforest.
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