Opera company opens new headquarters

If there’s one thing an opera company needs, it’s space. You can’t rehearse Wagner or Puccini in a garage, not with scores of singers and supernumeraries. Creating the costumes and sets sometimes requires a room the size of an airplane hangar.

After nearly three nomadic decades, the National Lyric Company (CLN) will inaugurate its own building in Moravia, San José. With a total floor space of 312 square meters, the structure cost a total of ₡90 million (about $180,000).

Originally proposed in 2012 by Guillermo Madriz, director of the National Music Center, and Patricia Conde, director of the CLN, the building was completed last December. It will receive a grand opening this Thursday, Jan. 30.

“For the first time, a space will be had [solely] by the National Lyric Company,” Conde said in a release. She added that the company “was founded in the 1980s and was forced to rent space in order to function.”

“Hopefully the development of opera in Costa Rica will rapidly continue, and many Costa Ricans will be able to enjoy it,” Madriz added.

More than a rehearsal space, the new CLN headquarters will also incorporate offices, a costume shop, laundry facilities, a private parking lot, a projection room and a library. The CLN plans to cultivate young singers from area universities and private schools. By design, the new CLN building is located directly adjacent to the National Music Center.

The grand opening takes place Jan. 30, 6:45 p.m. (located across from North Recreational Park, Moravia).