Galician Center and Gran Teatro de La Habana.
Built by natives of the Spanish region of Galicia who had found wealth in this city, the "Centro Gallego" is a complex that stands out because of its neo-baroque architectural style. One building in this complex is the Gran Teatro de La Habana, where some of the most illustrious figures in the international theater world have performed.
The Centro Gallego was a mutual insurance company, founded between 1907 and 1914, which benefitted not only natives of Galicia, but Cuban members as well, who were all offered “all of the facilities of a social club, free instruction and free medical assistance. Fees were no higher $2.00 a month, and funds were also used, in the case of the Centro Asturiano and the Centro Gallego, to build magnificent buildings in Havana and to construct and maintain several schools, as well as some of the best hospitals and clinics in Cuba''. The region of Galicia was home to 33.1% of the Spanish settlers who lived on the island.
The Gran Teatro de La Habana seats 2,000, is the oldest theater in the New World, and has seen the likes of the following stars grace its stage: Sarah Bernhardt and Eleonora Duse, sopranos like Adelina Patti and Victoria de los Angeles, musicians such as Arthur Rubinstein and Serguei Rachmaninov, the tenor Enrico Caruso, and dancers like Alicia Alonso, Anna Pavlova, Maia Plisietskaia and Fanny Elssler. The theater has also welcomed companies like American Ballet Theatre, the company of Antonio Gades, the Ballet del Teatro Colon de Buenos Aires, among many others.
The Center also benefits from its location, right on the Paseo del Prado, between San Rafael and San Jose streets.
The Gran Teatro de La Habana is the rightful heir to the once famous Teatro Tacon, and is heavily decorated with sculpture by the Italian Giuseppe Moretti. The theater has a main hall, named after the Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca, and another hall named after a Cuban writer, Alejo Carpentier, as well as space for holding concerts, conference romos with video hookups, practice rooms for ballet and dance groups, as well as a choral center and art galleries.
The Theater is also home to the Ballet Nacional de Cuba, as well as the highly regarded International Festival of Ballet and National Lyrical Arts, and the Traces of Spain Festival, among many others.
The Ballet Español de a joint company of the Cuba, Ballet Nacional de Cuba, and the National Lyric Theater regularly perform in the Gran Teatro, to the delight of many. The Gran Teatro de La Habana is part of a complex that includes spaces like the Parque Central, and borders the Hotel Inglaterra on one side, while on the other it’s right next to the Capitolio Nacional.
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