In the midst of the Infamous Decade, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires was one of the best places to unleash summer night dreams.
It was between 1934 and 1937 when the largest lyrical hall in the country organized “Fantasy Dances”that is, dances of Carnavalbut in his own way.
Since then, the idea of ”throwing the house out the window” has grown larger every year while the liturgical meaning of the Carnaval it decreased a little more with each new calendar.
More than an agenda of deprivation and Christian austerity, all the festivities tended towards abundance, before the 40 days of Lent that would precede Easter fell upon them. However, let’s frame the “throw the house out the window” to the times.
To begin with, no one wanted to jeopardize the prestige of the lyrical theater that had been born in 1852 to compete with the Scala in Milan, the San Carlos in Naples and La Fenice in Venice.
Carnivals in the Infamous Decade
From 1933 until the end of the Infamous Decade, in 1943 (let’s add “plus” following “decade”), the direction of the Teatro Colón was under the baton of the musician Juan José Castro.
After the military saber of José Félix Uriburu, who overthrew the democratic president Hipólito Yrigoyen, the destiny and the administration of the great hall of the national bel canto fell into the hands of the Buenos Aires Municipality; a period that for a few was the most fruitful.
It was that management, for example, that in 1936 brought to Buenos Aires the very Igor Stravinsky to direct your Persephonewith translation by Jorge Luis Borges and narrations by Victoria Ocampo.
Los Carnival dances They started at the Teatro Colón in 1934, a year that should have been big, according to Juan José Castro.
In keeping with the culturally ambitious context, in 1934, maestro Carlos Olivares had everything ready to present the Argentine Concert Association.
That same year, the work of the Kavanagh, the tallest building in South America and with a reinforced concrete structure. In Buenos Aires, the first section of the current Subway line Cwhich linked Constitution with Retiro.
Far away, in Mar del Plata, the Rambla was on fire and even further away, in Formosa, a raid of outlaw aborigines destroyed an entire town -Florencio Carvajal-, but that would not stop what was already unstoppable: the civilization.
Teatro Colón in Carnivals
In the middle of February, the Carnival dances in the Colón were promoted as a cool space to combat the summer. Not much more was needed for the Buenos Aires mythology to complete the story with the legend of the bars of ice on the dome of the theater, which were placed to cushion the heat of the attendees.
Las seats they were removed and the floor was leveled so that the participants might dance without stumbling. to the set designer Hector Basaldua he was in charge of the setting and, in general, the costumes respected the original setting of each melody.
The meetings had thematic and a schedule that was announced days before in the media or through public billboards.
On the indicated day or days, the Colón opened its doors at 9:00 p.m., but the Carnival function began at 22 hours.
In general, there were two segments. In the first part, nobility obliges, an author from the usual repertoire of the house was honored. For example, him Emperor’s voucher by Johann Strauss; the cancan that Jacques Offenbach composed for his operetta Orpheus in the Underworld; or the end of the overture Guillermo Tell of Gioachino Rossini.
To Columbus in Carnivals
Starting at midnight, another was singing. Because that’s where the Big party with a second block that honored more popular rhythms like the fox trot, he jazz and even the two-step or, of course, the tango so fashionable.
Let us not forget that in 1933, Argentina entered technological modernity thanks to Tangothe first sound film of our film industry, with Luis Sandrini and Tita Merello, directed by Luis Moglia Barth.
In the second block of the night, the dance might last until 4 in the morningtime when the theater closed its doors and there was no encore.
The audience was reserved for the dancers, but those who did not want to dance might sit in stagesgatherings and casseroles, to continue the party shaking the generous cotillon that was distributed among the attendees.
Masquerade
Of course, and to increase the mystery, it was lawful to attend hiding the face behind carnival masks. But whoever used them had to respect certain rulessuch as not walking scaring people by galleries and boxes, which in general were locked, if the occupant wanted it.
The highlight of the night occurred when the Miss Colon Theater between the dancers and the god momo among males.
In the midst of the de facto government of General Agustín P. Justo, law and order were essential even in festivities, and there were golden rules for celebrating Carnival at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires:
- The women were located in the sector known as cazuela, a sector absolutely tight for the men.
- The attendees, both men and womenthey had to appear “decently dressed” and “persons” dressed in a manner were not allowed to enter. indecent”.
- “Any person who is prone, either in words or with indecent gestures, disrespecting the public in this way, will be expelled from the theater,” said rule No. 10.
- Was no smoking At any point in the Teatro Colón and following 1 in the morning, anyone who wanted to leave, even if it was just to get some fresh air, did not return to enter.
- The foyer of the Theater was open to the public, but the assistants might not walk through the corridors at will: all the doors and windows were closed. key.
The Rules of the Ball maskswhich had 12 points, was enforced inside and outside the theater premises, both by people who called to order and by staff of the Police department“in charge of ensuring that this regulation is observed in all its parts”.
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