CubaPLUS Magazine

After a great remodeling, the Sauto theater of Matanzas reopened its doors exhibiting all its splendor as an anniversary gift for the city where it is located that has just celebrated its 326 birthday. Located in the center of The Athens of Cuba, name by which the city of Matanzas is known, the Sauto Theater, a national monument, is considered a cultural jewel of the largest of the Antilles for being the oldest and most original for its conservation in 156 years of operation. The show performed in the reopening of the theater, was conceived as a tribute to Cecilia Sodis, who was director of the colosseum for 27 years, from 1989 to 2016, when she died. In the first part of the show, the Chamber Choir of Matanzas, conducted by José Antonio Méndez Valencia performed the play Santa Cecilia, by Manuel Corona, accompanied by the Matanzas Symphony Orchestra (OSM), under the baton of the young César Eduardo Ramos, after the OSM interpreted La Bella Cubana, composed by Matanzas musician José White, played by local lyric soloists, with soprano Lucelsy Fernández.  Later on, the orchestra interpreted the Romanza Cecilia Valdés, Cuban operetta composed by Gonzalo Roig. For the second act,  the program reserved music dedicated to Matanzas, such as variations for piano on the Matanzas darling romanza, operetta Daughter of the Sun, also by Roig, and played by pianist Hilda Elvira Santiago. With this reopening, the so-called Athens of Cuba once again proudly shows its emblematic neoclassical theater remodeled, whose scenarios have received prominent national and international figures, including: Prima Ballerina Assoluta Alicia Alonso, Russian Anna Pavlova, Italian tenor  Enrico Caruso , actress Sara Bernhardt, Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona, dramatist and Nobel Prize of Literature Jacinto Benavente, Argentine actress and singer Libertad Lamarque, Spanish dancer, Antonio Gades, and composer, guitarist and conductor Leo Brouwer.