COSTA RICA TEATRO NACIONAL

Back then, San Jose was very different than it is today.

With only about 19,000 residents, the theatre took seven years to build, paid for by a tax on coffee exports.

And, though we take it for granted today, electric lighting was then a recent phenomenon, first displayed in connection with the third Paris World’s Fair in 1878 when, in June of that year Paris electric lights were first turned on along the Avenue de l’Opera and Place de l’Opera, to the amazement of the planet(and, in part, leading to its nickname “City of Lights”).

Nonetheless, the World’s Fair introduced the planet to Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone, Thomas Edison’s phonograph and megaphone, Felix de Temple’s monoplane---the world’s first craft to actually fly, and the Statue of Liberty---whose head went on display before the statue was given to the United States.

Victor Hugo led efforts that resulted in today’s international copyright laws; the Braille touch-write system was adopted worldwide; and international mail standards were implemented.

For many, the world must have looked bleak in the 1870s but, like today, it was merely a pause to the future].

But, back to Costa Rica. Six years after the Paris World’s Fair, San Jose became the first Latin American city to enter the world of electric lighting (on a small scale) and, by 1900, performances in the Teatro Nacional Costa Rica were under electric lights.

Today, it's a favorite daytime Costa Rica tourist attraction (9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m., Monday through Saturday) and wonderful theatre experience at night, from concerts from the National Philharmonic and other orchestras, dance troupes from around the world, plays and ballet performances.

Outside its doors are two marble statues honoring Ludwig van Beethoven (left sidebar) and Pedro Calderon de la Barca (one of Spain’s foremost dramatists and finest playwrights of world literature).

Prices vary by performance but are often around $6, a true bargain these days.

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