Mexico’s National Theater

This 2024, an important calendar of events and special presentations will take place to celebrate 90 years of the Mexico´s National Theater, better known today as the “Palace of fine arts”.

To May & June 1901 the project for a new national theater was led by Italian artist Adamo Boari, who started the construction to 1904. Due to the social-political situation in Mexico, the construction was stopped to 1910 and will take time to restart the personal commitment of president Porfirio Díaz, to finally have an authentic opera house in Mexico, the way other cities in Europe had one.

Many years after the Mexican Revolution was over, the construction of the new building was completed in 1934. The exterior of the building is primarily Art Nouveau and Neoclassical style, and the interior is primarily Art Deco. Next to the philharmonic orchestra and opera concerts, the building is best known for the presentations of the “Ballet Folklorico de México”. Besides the theater, the building has a museum that includes access to the lobby where visitors can admire the big murals by González Camarena, Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros and others.

The main doorway is made of white Italian Carrara marble, like most of the construction, next to iron structures. The interior is also surfaced in Carrara marble and the main hall is covered by the Marotti glass and iron roof. Some areas of the main hall show pre-Hispanic motifs done in Art Deco style, such as serpents’ heads on window arches and Maya God Chaac masks on the vertical light panels. The entrance to the theatre, there are mascarons in bronze with depictions of the Aztec and Maya deities of water: Tlaloc and Chaac.

The stage curtain is the only one of its type in any opera house in the world; is a stained glass foldable panel created out of nearly a million pieces of iridescent colored glass by Tiffany’s in New York and weighs 24 tons. The picture on it, shows the snow volcanos in central Mexico next to a Mexican landscape that was inspired by work done by artist Gerardo Murillo (Dr. Atl).

This 2024, an important calendar of events and special presentations will take place to celebrate 90 years of the Mexico´s National Teather, better known today as the Palace of fine arts.

Come visit Mexico and enjoy a special presentation of the Ballet, the orchestra, the opera and other performances, buying tickets in advance.

“Mexico’s National Theater” by Alfredo de la Cruz.