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The walls
Names of artists are inscribed on the outer walls
The Theatro Municipal stands on Cinelândia square in the Centro district of Rio de Janeiro. Its eclectic design was inspired by the Paris Opéra of Charles Garnier, and the outside walls are inscribed with the names of classic European and Brazilian artists. The National Library and the National Fine Arts Museum are nearby.
A campaign
A playwright's campaign in 1894 ended in a law nobody enforced
In the second half of the nineteenth century, Rio's two theaters, the Lyric and St. Peter, were criticized for their facilities. In 1894 the playwright Artur Azevedo launched a campaign for a new theater, but it produced only a Municipal Law that was not enforced. The tax raised to pay for it was never spent on the building.
Built in four years
It rose on 1,180 wood poles driven into groundwater
The theater came with the mayor Francisco Pereira Passos's makeover of the city center, which opened the Central Avenue in 1903. Building began in 1905 on a foundation of 1,180 wood poles rooted in groundwater. About 280 workers in two shifts finished it in four and a half years, and President Nilo Peçanha inaugurated it on July 14, 1909.
Inside
Brazilian painters and sculptors decorated it, with European glass and tile
To decorate the building, the most important Brazilian painters and sculptors of the time were summoned, among them Eliseu Visconti, Rodolfo Amoedo and the Bernardelli brothers. European artisans were recruited for the stained glass and mosaic tiles. Look for Visconti's drop curtain and, in the basement, the Assyrian decor of the restaurant Assírius.
The house
The house grew from 1,739 seats to 2,361
At its opening the theater could hold 1,739 viewers. In 1934, finding it too small for the city, it was enlarged to 2,205 seats in three months, and later reached its current 2,361. It closed on October 19, 1975, for restoration and reopened on March 15, 1978. Today it mostly shows ballet and classical music.
In this plan
It is one of the stops on this plan.
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The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Theatro Municipal (Rio de Janeiro), and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.