The Theatro Municipal opened in 1911, financed by coffee barons who wanted São Paulo to have a building to rival the great opera houses of Europe. The model was Paris — eclectic Beaux-Arts exterior, marble staircase, gilt-and-velvet auditorium with 1,500 seats. The 1922 Modern Art Week, which launched the Brazilian Modernist movement (Mário de Andrade, Tarsila do Amaral, Heitor Villa-Lobos), took place here in the foyer.
The theatre remains the home of the São Paulo Municipal Symphony Orchestra and the city ballet, and stages opera, ballet, and orchestral concerts year-round. Even when nothing is on, you can take a guided tour of the interiors. The Praça das Artes complex behind it, opened in 2012, is a striking piece of contemporary concrete architecture worth a look in itself.