Madrid, Spain — Activities
Madrid Culture
Madrid has had its fair share of cultural icons - surrealist genius Salvador Dalí lived in the city as a student, as did filmmaker Luis Buñuel and poet and dramatist Federico García Lorca. American writer Ernest Hemingway was a war correspondent in Madrid during the Civil War and a regular visitor thereafter. Madrid has its own distinctive dancing style (chotis), seen to best effect during the San Isidro festival and light opera (zarzuela). The city also boasts an international opera house, as well as numerous cinemas and theaters catering for all tastes.
While most hotels are happy to book tickets for guests, they will charge for the service. It is cheaper for visitors to book directly at the box offices, not all of which accept credit cards. Keen theatergoers can also make advance bookings at savings banks - for example, Servicio de Entradas Punto Com (tel: 90 222 1622; www.entradas.com) and through El Corte Inglés (www.elcorteingles.es/entradas). Tickets for sold-out performances are available for purchase (at a premium) at Localidades Galicia, Plaza del Carmen 10 (tel: 91 531 2732; www.eol.es/lgalicia). Tickets for performances at the state-owned theaters (the Comedia, Teatro de la Zarzuela, Auditoria Nacional and Maria Guerrero) are available from the box offices at each of the four venues.
The Spanish weekly Guía de Ocio (www.guiadelocio.com/english) prints listings on cultural events in and around the city.
Music: Madrid's opera house, the Teatro Real, Plaza de Oriente (tel: 91 516 0660; www.teatro-real.com), is one of the most modern opera houses in Europe. The Teatro de la Zarzuela, Calle de Jovellanos 4 (tel: 91 524 5400; http://teatrodelazarzuela.mcu.es), is the major venue for zarzuela - a genre loosely comparable to Viennese operetta, which encapsulates the idealised castizo (authenticity) of working class Madrid. The zarzuela season runs from June to September. During summer, outdoor performances take place at La Corrala, Calle del Meson de Paredes 65 or at the Jardines de Sabatini, next to the Palacio Real. Classical concerts, including performances by the prestigious Coro y Orquesta Sinfonica de Madrid, are held at the Auditorio Nacional de Música, Avenida Príncipe de Vergara 146 (tel: 91 337 0307; www.auditorionacional.mcu.es). At Sunday lunchtime, during the summer, concerts are held at the bandstand in Retiro Park.
Theater: Madrid's dramatic tradition can be traced back to the classical playwrights of Spain's Golden Age - Lope de Vega (1562-1635), Tirso de Molina (1584-1648) and Calderón de la Barca (1600-81). The season runs from September to June - in summer there are open-air performances, sponsored by the Veranos de la Villa festival (see Special Events). The Compañía Nacional de Teatro Clásico (http://teatroclasico.mcu.es) is based in the Teatro de la Comedia, Calle Príncipe 14 (tel: 91 521 4931), temporarily at Pavón Embajadores 9 (tel: 91 528 2819). Twentieth-century drama, as well as Spanish classics are also performed at the impressive Teatro Español, Calle Príncipe 25 (tel: 91 360 1480), which occupies the site of a theater dating back to 1583. Since opening in 1995, the Teatro La Abadía, Calle Fernández de los Ríos 42 (tel: 91 448 1181; www.teatroabadia.com), has met with great acclaim for its superb performances of international classics. A good introduction to alternative drama is provided by the Triángulo, Calle Zurita 20 (tel: 91 530 6891; www.teatrotriangulo.com), which also hosts English productions by the ACT (American and Classical Theater) and the amateur Madrid Players (www.madridplayers.org). Most theaters are closed on Monday.
Dance: The Teatro Real, Plaza de Oriente (tel: 91 516 0660; www.teatro-real.com), and Teatro de la Zarzuela, Calle de Jovellanos 4 (tel: 91 524 5400, http://teatrodelazarzuela.mcu.es), juggle Spanish and international dance, along with their commitment to music and opera. Other venues include the Centro Cultural de la Villa, Jardines del Descubrimiento, Plaza de Colón s/n (tel: 91 480 0300), which regularly hosts seasons by visiting companies, and the modern Teatro de Madrid, Avenida de la Illustración (tel: 91 730 1750; www.teatromadrid.com). Ballet Nacional de España (http://balletnacional.mcu.es) performs Spanish dance to full houses at the Teatro Albéniz, Calle de la Paz 11 (tel: 91 531 8311), during the Festival de Otoño (Autumn Festival). Choreographer Nacho Duato has breathed new life into the Compañia Nacional de Danza (tel: (91) 354 5053; http://cndanza.mcu.es), which tours widely - brief appearances in Madrid's principal venue, the Teatro Real, are hotly anticipated. Classical ballet is performed at the Teatro de Madrid and Albéniz by Victor Ullate's Ballet de la Comunidad de Madrid.
Flamenco dance has developed in the last 20 years, from an outmoded genre to a living passion. Traditional flamenco vies with nuevo flamenco (new flamenco) in numerous venues throughout the city. Madrid's talented flamenco dancers and musicians perform at Teatro Albéniz (see above), during the Festival Flamenco Cajamadrid, in May. Flamenco can be seen at the following venues: Corral de la Moreria, Calle Moreria 17 (tel: 91 365 8446; www.corraldelamoreria.com), Café de Chinitas, Calle Torrija 7 (tel: 91 547 1502; www.chinitas.com), Tablao Flamenco Arco de Cuchilleros, calle Cuchilleros 7, Sol (tel: 91 429 5675), Casa Patas, Calle Cañizares 10 (tel: 91 369 0496; www.casapatas.com), Las Tablas, (tel: 91 542 0520; www.lastablasmadrid.com), El Corral de la Pacheca, Calle Juan Ramon Jimenez (tel: 91 353 0100; www.corraldelapacheca.com) and Sala Rociera Almonte, Calle Juan Bravo, Salamanca (tel: 91 563 2504; www.almontesalarociera.com).
Film: International stars like Antonio Banderas and Penelope Cruz made their reputations with Spain's leading director, Pedro Almodóvar, who first claimed the world's attention with Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988). Although Almodóvar is not a son of the city, he moved to Madrid when he was 16, where he studied cinematic art and made his now highly acclaimed films. His very first movie, Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls on the Heap (1980) was set and filmed in Madrid. All About My Mother (1999) won Almodóvar the Best Director award at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival and Best Foreign Language Film at the 2000 Oscars. Talk to Her, released in 2002, has won numerous international awards, including a Golden Globe, and Volver (2006) was extremely well received too, with Broken Promises (2009) his latest release.
Madrileños are great filmgoers, especially on Sunday nights. Prior booking is not the norm, so queues are long. The most popular performances start at around 2200 and earlier screenings are less busy. Reduced tickets are available on Wednesday (día del espectador). Cinemas cluster around the Gran Vía, notably the vast Gran Vía Cinesa Capitol, Calle Gran Via 41 (tel: 90 233 3231, www.cinesa.es), with seating under sparkling chandeliers, for 1,000 spectators. English-language screenings are marked ‘VO' (versión original) in listings and local papers. The most popular venue is Yelmo Cineplex Ideal, Calle Doctor Cortezo 6 (tel: 90 222 0922, www.yelmocineplex.es). Art house cinema is on show at the Filmoteca Nacional, Calle Santa Isabel 3 (tel: 91 369 1125).
Literary Notes: Madrid has drawn its share of literary talent. The great novelist Cervantes, author of the classic 17th-century novel Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605), is buried in Calle de Lope de Vega - named in honor of the great lyric poet of Spain's Golden Age of theater. (By a strange twist of fate, Lope de Vega's house is located in Calle de Cervantes). Madrid was also home to poet-dramatist Federico García Lorca. The literati would huddle together in the barrio literario in Old Madrid and drink together in the now famous Café Gijón (see Restaurants). Hemingway was to join the literary crowd as a reporter in Madrid during the Civil War. His ode to bullfighting, Death in the Afternoon, was published in 1932 and For Whom the Bell Tolls was published in 1940. The late 20th century has brought its own talent, including among many other writers the 1989 Nobel Prize winner, Camilo José Cela, who died in 2002, the prolific novelist Miguel Delibes, the poet Rafael Alberti, and feminist writer Ana María Matute. Part love story, part thriller, Winter in Madrid, by C J Sansom (2006), is set in wartime Madrid, while Tim Parfitt's A Load of Bull: An Englishman's Adventures in Madrid (2007) is a more modern and more light-hearted look at this party city.
Madrid Tours
Walking, Cycling and Bus Tours
The Patronato Municipal de Turismo (tel: (91) 588 2906; www.descubremadrid.com) organizes a number of guided tours (in English). Two of the more popular tours are 'Hapsburg Madrid', including the Royal Palace, major churches and monasteries and 'the Oldest Madrid', an informative and entertaining introduction to the city. Both depart from the Oficina Municipal de Turismo, Plaza Mayor.
Bus Tours
Madrid Vision (tel: (91) 779 1888; www.madridvision.es) bus tours depart daily from several stops, and run every 10 to 30 minutes, depending on the season, 0700-2400 (summer), 1000-1900 (winter) and 1000-2100 (spring and autumn). There is a choice of two routes - 'Historic Madrid' (including the main sights of the Hapsburg and Bourbon city), and 'Modern Madrid' (including the Paseo de la Castellana and Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, Real Madrid's football ground). Headphones with English commentary are provided on the tour, which runs for about 75 minutes.
