South America's finest opera house takes its place once again in the social and civic life of Buenos Aires

The Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires is widely regarded as the finest opera house in South America. Since it opened in 1908 with a performance of Aida, luminaries such as Callas, Caruso, Toscanini, Strauss and Pavarotti have all graced its vast auditorium. Nijinsky danced there in 1917 and met Anna Pavlova, who was staying in the same hotel. From Buenos Aires, opera companies might go on to tour Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, but the Colon was considered the sans pareil of South American houses.

Political intrigue of a different kind accompanied the reopening of the Colon earlier this year following a A$300 million ([pounds sterling]49 million) refurbishment programme. Originally this was scheduled to be completed in 2008 to mark the Colon's centenary, but the scale and complexity of the work together with funding hiccups conspired to delay progress. Instead, its rebirth on 24 May this year marked the start of Argentina's bicentenary celebrations, with 2,700 guests attending a special gala performance of extracts from La Boheme and Swan Lake. Even so, political differences between Mauricio Macri, the flamboyant mayor of Buenos Aires (who is also a 2011 presidential hopeful), and current president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner meant that Kirchner and her ministerial cabinet did not attend the reopening. Despite this snub, Colon director Pedro Garcia Caffi welcomed the reopening, saying that the most important thing was 'to give back the theatre to the people.'Magnetic polypropylene blind from pounds 25 (www.alisonwhite.co.uk, 0844 800 0585)BLINDSSilhouette chandelier print on voile from pounds 25 per metre (www.digetexhome.com, 0161 873 8891)Acrylic shutters pounds 310 per square metre (www.alisonwhite.co.uk, 0844 800 0585)

Beyond this, the Colon has a wider role to play in a plan to recast and civilise Plaza Lavalle, currently not the most prepossessing of the city's many squares. A new open space is planned to adjoin the north side of the theatre, linking the main drag of Avenida de 9 Julio more explicitly with the Plaza Lavalle, and creating a forum for social and performance activities. And though such a lavishly funded restoration will inevitably attract a degree of carping, it seems appropriate that a building which has been such a resonant part of Buenos Aires' history can now find a new role in the life of the city.

Author: Catherine Slessor