Theatre in Santiago de Cuba

Santiago de Cuba was always a fertile place for theatrical performances since the mid XIX century, with the existence of the Café-Concert Le Tivoli in the neighborhood where the French settled. One of the characteristics of the theatre in Santiago de Cuba is the “teatro de relaciones”, some sort of street theatre emerged in the XIX century and that appears in the Cronicas de Santiago de Cuba, of the illustrious Emilio Bacardi and Moreau.  

During the first decades of the XX century, Santiago de Cuba had four big theatres for a population of 50 thousand people: Teatro de la Reina, later called Oriente; Teatro Heredia, Teatro Marti and the aristocratic Teatro Vista Alegre, were sceneries where the biggest opera companies from Italy and Spain were represented. Even in the beginning of the XX century it was possible to enjoy the repertoire of the diva Sara Bernhard and other bell canto famed figures like Enrico Caruso.