Lisbon, July 29, 2024 (Lusa) - Lisbon's São Carlos National Theatre is closing this week to empty the building before the rehabilitation work begins under the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), which is scheduled for completion in the second half of 2026.
According to an official source from the Organismo de Produção Artística (Opart), which manages São Carlos, in a written response to questions from Lusa, ‘after the conclusion of the 16th Millennium Festival ao Largo, which will be held at Largo de São Carlos until 1 August, the theatre will close to the public, to allow the work of “emptying” the theatre, packing and moveable collections, equipment and, in November, the teams’.
According to the same source, ‘this work is time-consuming and will take two months’.
The project to conserve, restore, rehabilitate and modernise the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos (TNSC) has an overall budget of €32.7 million as part of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR).
Completion of the works ‘is scheduled for the second half of 2026, followed by the phase of reinstalling teams, collections and equipment’.
Until then, the São Carlos team, totalling 250 people, will be housed in the Boa-Hora Court building, with collections temporarily deposited, depending on their nature, in the facilities of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences, the National Music Museum and the National Museum of Contemporary Art.
‘Only then will it be possible to reopen it to the public,’ said the same source.
TNSC's programming while the building in Largo do São Carlos, in Chiado, is closed will be carried out on tour around the country, in coordination with local partners, and with other stages in Lisbon, such as the Camões Theatre, the Belém Cultural Centre and the Tivoli Theatre, as well as the S. Luiz Theatre.
The ‘major contract’ at the TNSC was divided into two ‘to ensure that the timetable for the rigorous and very demanding intervention would be respected’.
‘The international tender for the first contract - for demolition, excavation and containment - will be launched in October this year. The international tender for the second contract will be launched between January and February 2025,’ revealed the same Opart source.
In addition to the TNSC, Opart also manages the Portuguese Symphony Orchestra, the Vítor Cordon Studios and the National Ballet Company, which is based at the Camões Theatre, another facility also covered by the RRP.
In the case of the Camões Theatre, ‘the intervention has been taking place on schedule’, and it is expected that this week ‘the handover of part of the building (studios, dressing rooms, work offices, among others) will take place in the last week of August, thus allowing the phased return of the teams from the beginning of September’.
Completing the work - an investment of €5.8 million - is scheduled for 30 September, and the Camões Theatre will open to the public on 15 October, ‘with a specific reopening programme’.
In a report published on Wednesday, the RRP's National Monitoring Committee described the situation in the area of Cultural Heritage as ‘worrying’.
In the area of Cultural Heritage, the ‘worrying assessment’ is highlighted in red, with the admission of a possible extension of deadlines, as happened with the D. Maria II National Theatre, which has once again postponed its opening to the public until the beginning of 2026, two years after the first date announced.
Of the 76 investments planned in this segment of theRPR's Culture area, which has a total value of €214.1 million to be carried out by the end of the first quarter of 2026, according to the report, more than half are still in the design or tendering phase, before the start of construction. In this segment, only the measures of the Saber Fazer programme, dedicated to the preservation and recognition of Portuguese craft production, have been completed.
Investment in the area of Cultural Heritage includes interventions in 73 museums, monuments and palaces, worth €165.8 million, in two national theatres - S. Carlos and D. Maria - and the Camões Theatre, for a total of €48.3 million, making a total of €214.1 million for 76 interventions.
On Friday, the Ministry of Culture told the Lusa news agency that the situation had improved since May, ‘with progress having been made in the development of investments’.
According to the office of the secretary of state for culture, Maria de Lurdes Craveiro, this progress should be ‘expressed in the next report’ of the National Commission for Monitoring the RRP (CNA-PRR).
JRS/ADB // ADB.
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