The Municipal Theatre, on the edge of the El Silencio district, was built between 1879 and 1881 under Guzmán Blanco — part of the same building campaign that produced the Capitolio and the rebuilt Casa Amarilla. The horseshoe auditorium, lyre-shaped façade, and gilded interior are a small-scale Caracas answer to the Paris Opera. For a century it was the city's premier venue and saw premieres of work by every important Venezuelan composer of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The building has had a difficult few decades — periods of closure, partial restorations, and erratic programming — but it is still in use and is worth a look from outside even when no performance is on.