“Fine Arts are to be defended in the theatre in order to transform this into the general show of the Arts”, Néstor Martín Fernández de la Torre.
If the first piece of work done by Francisco Jareño y Alarcón is considered, a meticulous neoclassical Italian style can be appreciated, captured in the symmetrical and tripartite façade of the Teatro and also in the horse-shoe form of the main hall. Nonetheless, it can be clearly observed that Jareño tends to use Moorish arches instead of the semicircular arches.
This piece of work is however stamped by subsequent refurbishments and a crucial date, June 28th 1918, the day when the Teatro Pérez Galdós suffered a fire leaving the thick stone walls and the horizontal wooden structure completely burnt. The reconstruction of the Teatro on the remains of the building began in 1921 and the opening took place in 1928, with Verdi’s opera Aida being performed. Such a reconstruction supposedly improved considerably the infrastructure of the Teatro, increasing the seating capacity and the premises of the artists, ameliorating the visibility and comfort of the seats, and amplifying the scenario and annexes. The architects in charge of the piece of work were Fernández Navarro y Navarro, Rafael Massanet y Faus, Isidro Puig Boada and especially Miguel Martín Fernández de la Torre and his brother Néstor.
The proposed architectural elements located in the leisure and interval areas on the ground floor and the floor with access to the Royal box would be carried out under the guidance of Miguel Martín. The carpentry work would be carried out in Mahogany wood originating from Spanish Guinea and Cuba.
All the decorative carpentry elements are characterised by art-nouveau details which can be appreciated on the door and window handles as well as on other decorative elements. Furthermore Miguel Martín included a series of decorative elements endowing the Teatro with unique qualities, for example the grand mirror facing the flight of stairs, the wall surfaces surrounding this area that are covered in sand from the Tufia Beach (Telde) and the decorative elements designed by his brother Néstor, such as the fruit bowls and the shapely pinnacles matching the banister.
Finally, both the Saint-Saëns Hall, constructed as the foremost interval area of the Teatro, and the stage mouth frieze should be mentioned here as both have been most beautifully decorated with paintings by Néstor, adapted to the outline of the architectural elements, with vividly coloured personal tropical motifs, here in the form of muslin canvases mounted on wooden frames rather than murals.
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