Luis A. Ferré Performing Arts Center

cen­tro-de-bel­las-artes-luis-a-ferre

The pre­miere facil­i­ty for top-notch per­for­mances in Puer­to Rico is, with­out a doubt, the Luis A, Fer­ré Per­form­ing Arts Cen­ter, bet­ter know among the locals as the Cen­tro de Bel­las Artes Luis A Fer­ré, or sim­ply “Bel­las Artes” for short.

It was inau­gu­rat­ed in 1981 by gov­er­nor Car­los Romero Barceló as a part of a very clever com­plex that also includes the Minil­las Gov­ern­ment Cen­ter, the Minil­las tun­nel, an adja­cent park­ing struc­ture, and a sec­tion of the Román Bal­do­ri­o­ty de Cas­tro Express­way. Today there’s an under­ground park­ing facil­i­ty under the cen­ter and the express­way runs under­neath it all form­ing the Minil­las Tunnel.

The Luis A, Fer­ré Per­form­ing Arts Cen­ter has four per­for­mance halls: Anto­nio Paoli Fes­ti­val Hall, ded­i­cat­ed to the world-renowned Puer­to Rican tenor; René Mar­qués The­ater Hall, ded­i­cat­ed to one of Puer­to Rico’s most famous play­wrights and essay­ists; Car­los Marichal Per­for­mance Hall, ded­i­cat­ed to one of the Island’s most tal­ent­ed cos­tume design­ers; and Sala Sin­fon­i­ca Pablo Casals, ded­i­cat­ed to the famous Cata­lan che­lo vir­tu­oso who was instru­men­tal in found­ing the Island’s Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra as well as the Puer­to Rico Con­ser­va­to­ry of Music.

There is also a small café named after Sylvia Rex­ach, one of the Island’s most famous com­posers and singers and a beau­ti­ful square named after Juan Morell Cam­pos, the Island’s most famous “dan­za” com­pos­er.  The square has stat­ues, foun­tains, beau­ti­ful land­scap­ing and can be used for out­door events of up to 800 participants.

Among the many inter­na­tion­al and local fig­ures that have graced the “Bel­las Artes” stages and that I have actu­al­ly wit­nessed are Plá­ci­do Domin­go, Joan Manuel Ser­rat, Rafael Mar­tos, Pin­chas Zuk­er­man, I Musi­ci, John Williams, Isaac Stern, Itzhak Perl­man Julian Bream, Bil­ly Tai­lor, Alber­to Cortés, Inti Ili­mani, Facun­do Cabral, Dan­ny Rivera, Anto­nio Cabán Vale, Luce­si­ta Benítez, and hun­dreds, maybe even thou­sands more.

One of the aspects that per­form­ers from all cor­ners of the world have praised the most about these facil­i­ties has been the acoustics, which many have described as “per­fect”.

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