The singer and trumpeter Andrea Motis performs on Saturday the 17th at the Margarita Xirgu Theater in Buenos Aires. The concert is part of a cycle that establishes bridges between Catalan and Argentine cultures. The place where the Barcelona artist will perform is an exquisite room that is part of the historic Casal de Catalunya in the San Telmo neighborhood, with a neo-Gothic and modernist façade. Joan Manuel Serrat has also sung here, among many other celebrities.
The theater has been named after the legendary actress and theater director Margarida Xirgu (1888-1969) since 1966, when a tribute was dedicated to her. But, in reality, the Buenos Aires theater where Xirgu achieved some of the most memorable successes of her career is not this one, but the Odeón Theater, located half an hour's walk from the Catalan club.
Well, in reality, the name Odeón no longer serves to identify the venerable theater on Corrientes Avenue on the corner of Esmeralda Avenue, but rather a brutal 41-story glass skyscraper that, since its completion in 2021, has looked over its shoulder at the Obelisk itself. This is the Odeón Tower. The original building of the old theater was demolished in 1991, with Carlos Menem in the Casa Rosada. There were protests by the theater community.
But just because a high-end property has taken over the central site does not mean that the theater has completely disappeared. At least, in its essence. Because the Odeon not only survives in the name, but also somewhere in the bowels of the tower to which few people have had access. They are two hidden, diaphanous and apparently empty rooms in which one day, if the necessary stars aligned, the old theater should be reborn.
The Madrid-based jurist from La Plata Beltrán Gambier has a lot to do with the survival of the Odeón. Gambier, also known for collaborating decisively in the salvation of Albéniz from Madrid, successfully faced a tangle of judicial and political institutions to reverse the government's decision to tacitly repeal a law that required the recovery, on the new farm, of the demolished rooms.
After a long litigation with a foundation, Gambier achieved notable success. The administrative litigation nullified the repeal of that requirement. But another obstacle arose: there is a lack of regulations that develop the law.
The outcome of this whole mess is that the builder had to reserve a space for theatrical purposes, although the lack of regulations has left him in a kind of limbo. It is not even known what capacity the two rooms inhabited on the ground floor could have (the old Odeon had more than 500 seats). Gambier has not been able to visit them. “I'm the last one they're going to let them see,” says the jurist, also founder of the cultural magazine Intramuros.
Somehow, their selfless struggle keeps the flame of the theater burning, waiting for someone to decide to fan it. Reopening the Odeon would be a kind of historical reparation. Like other stars on the scene, Xirgu founded his career on him. It was the first theater in which he acted outside of Catalonia.
On his stage he performed Magda, by Sudermann, in 1913, and, in different stages, Doña Rosita the Spinster or the Language of Flowers and Yerma, by Lorca. Also Fuenteovejuna, by Lope de Vega. “Buenos Aires was the city that consecrated me, the one that gave me the support that would later open the doors of Madrid for me,” declared the Catalan artist.
The determination to rescue theaters transcends mere nostalgia. In today's context, one can even venture that she is somewhat visionary. This is because there are few arts more prepared to resist the onslaught of artificial intelligence than theater, dance or live music, essential manifestations that provide the public with a direct experience that cannot be replicated by the algorithm.
The inevitable saturation of the screen-society predicts a long life for these cultural expressions. Then we must never stop the fight to reopen the abandoned theaters, whether in Corrientes or on the Rambla in Barcelona. As long as there is a stage and a stall, there will be hope. No matter how much dust they accumulate.
