SODRE Montevideo-CONCERT ACTIVITIES DURING 2016
Do you want to discover the amazing concert halls in Uruguay? Book your tickets now for SODRE Montevideo.
With the start of cooler weather in Uruguay, it is a welcoming time to look at the vast concert offerings. If you are residing in Punta Del Este, a two hour drive will take you to Montevideo where SODRE, an agency of the Ministry of Education and Culture of Uruguay, promotes culture and art.
“More culture for everyone” reads SODRE’s logo. SODRE has been able to carry their shows across the country and beyond borders. Their 2016 Concerts are exceptionally done in imaginative art and with international recognition.
One of the SODRE ´s launching platform is a versatile art space called The National Auditorium Adela Reta. With six years of success, the exhibition and production center hosts live music, ballet, opera, in addition to companies that combine multiple disciplines with creative projects of artistic excellence. It opened on November 21, 2009 with a rich heritage, forged through 40 years of history in the socio-cultural life of the city.
Countless companies along with foreign and national artists have performed at this auditorium since early last century. In that period the “belle epoque” the best of the world´s theatrical art performed at what was at that time called “Urquiza Theatre”. SODRE took possession of the property in June 1931 removing the old name reminiscent of its owner and founder and to rename it with the name of SODRE Auditorium Study. The complex of 25 thousand square meters has a main hall of 2,000 seats designed for opera, symphony, and ballet performances. Its pit can accommodate more than 100 musicians, is organized into three modules and has an automated lift. The stage, the largest in the country, has a height of 27 meters, and a scene adjustable mouth that can reach 15.50 meters width by 12 meter height. It also has an amphitheater, exhibition areas, sectors of foyers and cafeterias. The building has special acoustic characteristics throughout its construction, especially the inner hub containing the stage and galleries.
This year SODRE added a new Concert Hall at Nelly Goitiño that also gathers the best shows of the season 2016. This new artistic space is a small theater for an audience of less than a hundred people, which is ideal for chamber music and anything that requires proximity between artists and the public.
Foreign Shows
Corpo Group, one of the best dance companies in Brazil, gave a fabulous presentation in February at the Auditorium Adela Reta with full audience.
June 24th – 26th, From Hell to Paradise, by No Gravity Dance Company, will be playing. No Gravity Dance Company is a group that mixes dance with a spectacular view of stagecraft, using mechanical devices and a set of invisible wires that match the vertical lines of the stage.
The third foreign show comes highly recommended. Company Finzi Pasca, returns with La Verita on August 31st and will play till September 4th. A curtain painted by Salvador Dalí is the starting point of this great stage work, which runs the aesthetics of the Spanish surrealist master turning some of his paintings and his pictorial resources circus accurate tests, into a high poetic level.
Opera Season
The opera season will be held at SODRE Auditorium with the popular title La Traviata and will run from September 30th to October 8th, with the Symphony Orchestra and the National Choir from SODRE.
La Traviata which played at the Solis Theatre 10 years ago is seeking to take part as one of the best 2016 attractions. It has a great cast led by the Venezuelan soprano Mariana Ortiz and Uruguayan baritone Dario Solari.
2016 will also have a strong Spanish flavor in the lyrics activities. April greeted the Spanish Zarzuela festival at the National Auditorium Adela Reta, with the Spanish soprano María Bayo and Ruben Fernandez at the piano. In April The African Duet together with the National Choir, that included the comic actor and communicator Petru Valenski, will surprise the winter audience.
In June the opera La Serva Padrona, by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi arrives with a magnificent stage at the Auditorium Adela Reta and is joined by the lyrical concert of the Argentina soprano Paula Almerares and the pianist Alan Kwiek.
Choral and instrumental music activity has a bold list of titles with the highlight of Schumann reviving this great figure of Romanticism, 160 years after his death.
And for the June 20th gala of 85 years of the Symphony Orchestra, the magnificent pianist Raquel Boldorini will be celebrating 60 years from her professional debut in the official orchestra directed by Martin Garcia, with special guests Michelle Areyzaga, Dario Schmunck and Adriana Mastrángelo.
Even if you are not planning on seeing all the shows, you should not miss the chance to walk through this concert hall that both architecturally and technically in terms of sight and sound is a wonderful place. A theatre at the level of the best in the world. An architectural gem and a place of perfect acoustics. Enjoy!
Mary Ann Thompson
