The Government declares the Comedy Theater and the National Music Auditorium an Asset of Cultural Interest

The Council of Ministersat the proposal of the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasunapproved this Tuesday the declaration as Assets of Cultural Interest (BIC) in the Monument category of the Comedy Theater and the National Music Auditorium building, both in Madrid.

This means, according to Culture, the application of this category of protection, the maximum established by Law 16/1985, of June 25, on Spanish Historical Heritage. The processing of the files to obtain this declaration began last July, in the case of the National Auditorium, and in the month of September, that of the Teatro de la Comedia.

The Madrid Comedy Theater is the work of architect Agustín Ortiz de Villajos. Currently, it houses the headquarters of the National Classical Theater Company, dependent on the National Institute of Performing Arts and Music (INAEM), an autonomous state organization dependent on the Ministry of Culture.

The building responds to the style of nineteenth-century theaters, with a sober design and a classically inspired façade. Its most significant room is the main room of the theater, shaped like a horseshoe, with a wooden stage and a ceiling with paintings by José Vallejo y Galeazo representing a transparent sky with trompe-l’œil of Arab architecture on its pendentives.

Ortiz de Villajos decided to use iron in its structure and decoration, thus making it an emblematic example of Madrid iron architecture.

The Comedy Theater was inaugurated on September 18, 1875, 150 years ago, on Príncipe Street in Madrid, in the Barrio de las Letras. Its origins are found in the coliseum that the venue and party businessman Silverio López Larrainza wanted to build on the site of a neighborhood patio he owned, located on Calle del Príncipe 14 and Calle Núñez de Arce.

The works began in 1873 and Tirso García Escudero de la Torre was its sole owner from the 1896-97 season until his death in 1950. On its stages the premieres of the classics of the Golden Age and authors such as Jacinto Benavente, Benito Pérez Galdós, the Álvarez Quintero brothers and Leandro Fernández de Moratín were celebrated.

In 1915, a fire destroyed the interior of the theater and the room was rebuilt in a few months by architects Luis Bellido and José López Sallaberry. Since then it continued its activity, which was interrupted during the Civil War. In the 70s, independent performances with social and political themes were performed there, such as ‘Castañuela 70’, ‘Yerma’ or ‘Sócrates’. On its stage the first nude in Spanish theater was shown during the Franco regime, with the play ‘Equus’.

In 1998, the Ministry of Culture bought the theater and acquired five of the building’s floors to consolidate the Comedy Theater as the stable headquarters of the National Classical Theater Company. In 2002 the Comedia was closed to the public to undergo extensive renovation, and reopened its doors in 2015.

NATIONAL MUSIC AUDITORIUM

The National Music Auditorium was inaugurated in 1988 and, from the moment of its opening, it constitutes one of the main centers of musical creation and representation in the country.

Its construction was carried out by the renowned architect José María García de Paredes, who already had extensive experience in the design of musical infrastructures. For the development of the project, he received advice from German engineers Lothar Cremer and Thomas Fütherer, from the Berlin Institute of Acoustics.

The design of the building is a continuation of the architectural identity of García de Paredes, which stands out for its simplicity and the serene urban implementation of its buildings. The exterior runs parallel to Príncipe de Vergara Street, with facades with uniform rhythms that correspond to the perimeter galleries that run through the building, treated as a flat and continuous surface.

Inside, the building is organized into three independent bodies, separated by structural expansion joints. At the north end is the Symphony Hall, in the south the Chamber Hall and in the center the general services body. To isolate the rooms from noise, in addition to their arrangement in the building, a system of double doors with deep locks is used, which must be crossed before entering them.

The architect calculated the acoustics of the rooms to the millimeter, following the theoretical foundations of musical architecture, taking into account the volume of air inside the rooms in relation to the number of spectators and their maximum width. Its design prioritizes sound quality, which influences the selection and location of each seat, and is completed with the walnut wood cover that runs through the two rooms..

Today, the National Auditorium retains its relevance in the musical scene, regularly hosting performances by figures of international stature and the classical repertoire. In addition, it houses the headquarters of the National Orchestra and Choir of Spain, the National Youth Orchestra of Spain and the National Center for Musical Diffusion.