Municipal Theatre of Santiago

This guide to the Municipal Theatre of Santiago opens on its 1857 debut with Verdi's Ernani, and the fire that gutted the hall hours after a performance by soprano Carlotta Patti in 1870. It follows French architect Lucien Hénault's rebuild, the 1906 earthquake and a second fire in 1927 that each stripped the interior bare, and the resident Ballet de Santiago, founded in 1959 and trained through a school partnered with the Paris Opera. In its early decades the hall hosted opera, ballet and the presidential gala held every independence day.