Teatro Ángela Peralta

The Teatro Ángela Peralta is the historic theatre of Mazatlán, on Calle Carnaval in the old town, right beside Plazuela Machado. It began as the Teatro Rubio, owned by the businessman Manuel Rubio and designed by engineer Andrés Librado Tapia; it was built between 1869 and 1874 and opened under that name in February 1874 as a modest popular venue. Santiago León Astengo remodelled it from 1879 to 1881, and it reopened officially in February 1881. The building has a neoclassical front and an ornate interior with balconies on several levels, mixing neoclassical and Romantic styles.

The theatre takes its name from Ángela Peralta, the Mexican soprano whose admirers called her the "Mexican nightingale"; she arrived by ship from San Francisco with her opera company in 1883, already ill, and died of yellow fever on 30 August 1883 at the Hotel Iturbide next door. The company had planned to open a season here with Lucia, but she never sang on this stage, though it is said she rehearsed in the hall. In 1943 the building became the Cine Ángela Peralta; it closed in 1964, was used as a workshop for Carnaval floats, and staged its last show at the 1969 Carnaval. In 1975 Hurricane Olivia tore off the wooden roof, which fell into the hall, broke the cast-iron balconies and destroyed the stage.

For about ten years the roofless shell stood open to the sky, overgrown with fig trees, until a rescue began in 1986. It was declared a national historic monument by presidential decree in December 1990, architect Juan José León Loya led its restoration, and it reopened on 23 October 1992. It reopened with Bizet's Carmen; the restoration kept the old shell and built a modern theatre inside, with better acoustics and lighting, a lowered stage and a pit for an 80-piece orchestra. Today the hall seats 841 and hosts opera, concerts, dance and theatre from Mexico and abroad, as well as events linked to the Carnaval.