The Teatro Nacional Sucre in Quito is one of the oldest opera houses in South America. Initiated by President Ignacio de Veintimilla and his niece Marieta, it was built from 1879 on the former Plaza de las Carnicerías and opened on 25 November 1886; its name honours Marshal Antonio José de Sucre. The German architect Francisco Schmidt designed a building with horseshoe tiers of boxes and a Palladian façade with six Ionic columns and a frieze of Apollo and the nine Muses. After a modernisation completed in 1952, the theatre closed again in 1994 and reopened on 24 November 2003 with Verdi's Rigoletto. The auditorium seats 737. In 2006 it presented the premiere of the Ecuadorian opera Manuela y Bolívar by Diego Luzuriaga. It is run by a municipal foundation.
The Teatro Nacional Sucre in Quito was built in 1886 in Italian Renaissance style — the location at 2,850 metres makes it one of the highest-altitude opera houses in the world.
At a glance
- Type
- Multi-genre theatre
- Location
- Quito, Ecuador