Galdosian route: 06. Pérez Galdós Theatre

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Routes · Subcategory: Galdosian route

With his verses and satirical comics written in his school days, Galdós had already showed himself to be against the new Tirso de Molina Theatre being positioned on the edge of the Atlantic at the mouth of the Guiniguada ravine.

By a twist of fate, the theatre so caricaturized by Galdós would end up being named after him, following its reconstruction after a fire burnt it down on the night of 28th June 1918, with only its outer walls left standing. 

A crucial moment for the change of name to come about was the premier of Electra in 1901. This is what the chronicles of the time said about it: «When the third act finished, where the audience noticed the struggle between the obscurantism and freedom, represented by Pantoja and Máximo, the first shouts of Long live freedom! began to ring out..., while in the fourth and fifth acts the whole theatre became enveloped in pro freedom manifestations against fanaticism, along with hymns in favour of freedom interpreted by the orchestra and municipal band». Following the success of this first night's show, the definitive name of Pérez Galdós Theatre began to come into being. 

Thanks to the initiative of the Gabinete Literario, and popular support, in 1873 work began on the Tirso de Molina Theatre on a piece of land at Bocabarranco, next to the Guiniguada and the Atlantic. The Theatre was officially opened in 1890 with the show La Traviatta by G. Verdi. With its reconstruction now finished following the 1918 blaze, it was officially called the Pérez Galdós Theatre. In 1924 its most important refurbishment programme was undertaken by Miguel and Néstor Martín Fernández de la Torre, and its doors were not reopened until 1928.

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