Teatro Real

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Teatro Real east façade

Teatro Real west façade

Teatro Real Interior

The Teatro Real (literally Royal Theater) or simply The Real (as it is known colloquialy), is an opera house in Madrid. It was inaugurated on 10 October 1850, with Donizetti's La Favorite and is one of the world's finest stage and acoustic settings for opera.

The construction of the Real was ordered by the Queen Isabel II, hence its name, the Real (royal in Spanish). The Teatro Real is located just in front of the Palacio Real, the official residence of the Kings of Spain.

The most successful years of the opera house (including the visit of Giuseppe Verdi to present his new opera La Forza del Destino) were from its construction in 1850 to 1925, when the theater had to be closed because of the damage that the construction of the Metro de Madrid had caused on the building.

The theater reopened in 1966 as a concert theater until the middle of the 1990s, when the theater was remodeled to host opera again. In 1969, the 14th Eurovision Song Contest was held at the theatre, featuring a metal sculpture on stage which was created by surrealist Spanish artist, Salvador Dalí. Since 1997, the theater has recouped the fame and the excellence that it possessed on the 19th century. The orchestra of the Teatro Real is the Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid.

The Teatro Real has a museum, and daily tours of the building are given even when there are no performances.

The Metro de Madrid station of the Teatro Real is located in the line 2 and is called Ópera.