¹ For a recent descriptive article, including full color photographs, see Caamaño, Roberto, “Temple of Opera,” Américas (Jan.-Feb. 1971), 17–24.Google Scholar Also Arnosi, Eduardo, “The Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires 1908–1958,” Opera (July 1958), 422–427 Google Scholar; Pool, Philip B., “Buenos Aires—Summer Opera Headquarters of the Hemisphere,” Opera News (May 9, 1949), 6–9 Google Scholar; Caruthers, Ben F., “Change in Buenos Aires,” ibid. (May 16, 1970), 20–21.Google Scholar For more detailed descriptions with many photographs and plans see de la Guardia, Ernesto and Herrera, Roberto, El arte lírico en el Teatro Colón … 1908–1933 (Buenos Aires, 1933).Google Scholar For an informal and chatty history there is Garland, Marguerite, Mas allá del gran telón (Buenos Aires, 1948).Google Scholar All these have been superseded by an encyclopedic work, Caamaño, Roberto, compiler, La historia del Teatro Colón 1908–1968 (3 vols., Buenos Aires, 1969),Google Scholar containing hundreds of photographs, many in color.

² Bosch, Mariano, Historia del teatro en Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires, 1910)Google Scholar and Historia de la opera en Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires, 1905); Llanes, Ricardo M., Teatros de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires, 1968).Google Scholar A file of La Prensa from 1869 is available on film and contains detailed descriptions of the various companies and their seasons. The Teatro Odeón, opened in 1892, and the Coliseo Argentino (1907) were also used for operatic performances.

³ Two valuable recent studies of this phenomenon are Scobie, James R., Buenos Aires: Plaza to Suburb, 1870–1910 (New York, 1974),Google Scholar and Sargent, Charles S., The Spatial Evolution of Greater Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1870–1930 (Tempe, 1974).Google Scholar

⁴ For convenience all the primary material relating to the continual reorganization of the Municipality has been compiled in Recopilación de los debates de leyes municipales y sus textos definitivos (6 vols., Buenos Aires, 1946). The best short account is in Seguido Quintana, V. Lenares, Gobierno y administración de la República Argentina (2 vols., Buenos Aires, 1946), 11,Google Scholar 59–76. For the record of individuals involved in the administration of the city Escobar, Ismael Bucich, Buenos Aires Ciudad 1880–1930 (Buenos Aires, 1930)Google Scholar is essential.

⁵ Varela, Adrian Beccar, Torcuato de Alvear (Buenos Aires, 1926)Google Scholar; Luna, Felix, Alvear (Buenos Aires, 1958).Google Scholar

⁶ Torcuato de Alvear to Eduardo Wilde, September 30, 1886, printed in Congreso Nacional, Diario de sesiones de la cámara de senadores 1887 (26 July), 334–335. (Hereinafter cited as Senadores). Alvear describes in detail the plans and events.

⁷ The Argentine gold peso equalled .965 of the United States gold dollar. Two currencies existed side by side with a fluctuating gold permium until that was fixed at 127 in 1899. The gold premium averaged 39 during 1886.

⁸ Senadores, 1887 (July 26), 335. Ferrari had worked out a detailed proposal including preliminary drawings by an engineer named Giachi which he had presented to the Council. La Prensa, July 2, 1887.

⁹ Congreso National, Diario de sesiones de la cámara de diputados, 1887, I, (August 10), 509–510. (Hereinafter cited as Diputados).

¹⁰ The Opéra Comique of Paris had just burned to the ground with great loss of life. Sensational eyewitness accounts and editorials had been published in the Argentine press, and the tragedy, as well as others like it, was much on the minds of the legislators. The threat of such a fire in Buenos Aires’ antiquated theaters was used over and over again by the proponents of the new Teatro Colón.

¹¹ A resume of the meeting, accompanied by the text of the ordinance appears in La Prensa, Oct. 12, 1887.

^l2 Ibid., Oct. 26, 1887.

¹³ Ibid., Oct. 29; Dec. 6, 1887.

¹⁴ Senator Derqui outlined and explained the background of the bill in his long report to the Senate. Senadores, 1888 (Aug. 18), 284.

¹⁵ Ibid., 286–287.

¹⁶ Diputados, 1888, II (Oct. 16), 346. It became Law No. 2381.

¹⁷ La Prensa, March 12, 1889. Astigueta and Bonetti were rival empresarios; Bonetti lived to manage three seasons in the completed Colón, 1919–21.

¹⁸ Ibid., April 14, 1889. The decree is printed in full with the story.

¹⁹ Like his teacher, Meano was a native of Italy who had migrated to the Río de la Plata. He was also the architect of the new Palace of Congress, then under construction.

²⁰ La Prensa, Jan. 13, 1890. The names of the original subscribers are given in de la Guardia, and Herrera, , El arte lírico en el Teatro Colón, 9.Google Scholar

²¹ Report of Senator del Pino, Senadores, 1896 (Dec. 24), 737–744.

²² Report of government engineers, La Prensa, April 22, 1891.

²³ Report of Senator del Pino, loc. cit.

²⁴ Report of the Inspectors of the Ministry of Public Works, printed in Anales de la Sociedad Científica Argentina, XXV (1893), 9–16. A careful point by point comparison between Tamburini’s original drawings and the changes made by Meano is included. The general conclusion was that if the theater as envisaged by Tamburini was more aesthetic, the changes wrought by Meano would make the actual theater larger, more hygenic, safer and more convenient. Meano’s architectural drawings and plans are included in the same source, following p. 88.

²⁵ The Report of Vicente Casares, Chairman of the investigating board, disclosing the state of affairs in the National Bank is printed in full in Buenos Aires Standard, April 29, 1891.

²⁶ On Oct. 8, 1892. República Argentina, Registro Oficial, 1892, 11, 441–442.

²⁷ Ibid., 1894, 1, 407–408. Report of Senator del Pino, loc. cit. The Intendente at this time was Federico Pinedo.

²⁸ Registro Oficial, 1896, 1, 42.

²⁹ Report of Senator del Pino, loc. cit.

³⁰ The best source on the municipal debt is Guiñazú, Enrique Ruiz, Deuda pública de la ciudad de Buenos Aires: leyes-decretos-ordenanza y contratos, recopilación coordinada y anotada. (Buenos Aires, 2nd ed., 1928).Google Scholar

^3l Diputados, 1896, 11 (Jan. 15, 1897), 884–887. Deputy Prospero Mena (Tucumán) was particularly active in getting the bill passed.

³² Law No. 3474. Jan. 19, 1897

³³ La Prensa, Dec. 30, 1897.

³⁴ Insight into her businesslike methods and perfectionism can be found in the account of her transactions with Caruso whom she signed up for the first time for the 1899 season, Key, Pierre V.R. and Zirato, Bruno, Enrico Caruso (Boston, 1922), 105–106.Google Scholar

³⁵ La Prensa, Dec. 8, 1898. They are listed in ibid., Oct. 14, 1902.

³⁶ Ibid., Aug. 22, 1907.

³⁷ The transfer of the deed was signed Nov. 10, 1899. Ibid., May 22 and 28, 1902. Some recalcitrant boxholders were coerced into the agreement by apparently illegal threats that they would lose all rights to their places if they refused.

³⁸ Senadores, 1899 (Aug. 7), 590.

³⁹ Diputados, 1899 (Sept. 4), 784.

⁴⁰ Law No. 3797. Sept. 11, 1899.

⁴¹ A line drawing of the house as it stood, compared with a similar one of the theater as it was to look when completed, can be found in La Prensa, Jan. 17, 1900.

⁴² Ibid., May 22 and 28, 1902.

⁴³ Ordinance, printed in Guiñazú, Ruiz, Deuda pública de la ciudad de Buenos Aires, 130.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Senadores, 1903 (July 11), 187–188; (Aug. 1), 269–271.

⁴⁵ Diputados, 1903 (August 3), 401; (August 14), 547; (August 21), 595; (Sept. 11), 789–790.

⁴⁶ Ibid., (Sept. 11), 795.

⁴⁷ Buenos Aires Standard, Dec. 1903 through 1904.

⁴⁸ Caamaño, , compiler, Historia del Teatro Colón, 1, 147 Google Scholar; La Prensa, June 23, 1904.

⁴⁹ Like the previous architects, Dormal was also an immigrant. Born in Liège, Belgium, he had arrived in Buenos Aires in 1868. Trained at the University of Liège and in Paris, he found immediate success. As a close friend of Sarmiento and Avellaneda he quickly found his way to the top. Several parks, the Argentine Hippodrome, the Mausoleum of San Martin, the Executive Mansion of the governor of Buenos Aires in La Plata, the Teatro de la Opera, the town house of the Ortiz Basualdo family which won the annual architectural award in 1905, and the present building of the Sociedad Rural were among his accomplishments. A man of wide culture, he was also Professor of Architecture at the University of Buenos Aires until his death in 1924.

⁵⁰ La Prensa, June 20 and 30; Nov. 15, 1904.

⁵¹ Ibid., Aug. 22, 1907.

⁵² Ibid., June 13, 1907.

⁵³ Ibid., June 23; July 26, 1907. Details of last minute inspections in ibid., Feb. 11; April 2, 1908.

⁵⁴ The old Metropolitan Opera House, erected in 1883, with a splendid auditorium but nothing like the backstage facilities or the palatial appointments of the Colón, cost about $1,700,000.

⁵⁵ For the particularly evocative impressions of a much traveled young Spaniard see Carrillo, Enrique Gómez, El Encanto de Buenos Aires (Madrid, 1921), 65–75.Google Scholar