BY JANET STEINBERG
Manaus is the premier port city put on the
map by the landed aristocracy in the 1800s. At that time it was one of the
richest cities in the world.
For many years Manaus, carved out of
the very heart of the Amazonian wilderness, was a faded vision of the former
center of the Brazilian rubber boom. It was said that the wealth of this city,
deep in the heart of the Amazon, “dripped as sap from the rubber
trees”. Today, thanks to commerce and tourism, it is taking on a
second life.
Grandest of all the relics of the past
splendor of Manaus is the fabled Teatro do Amazona, the ornate,
salmon-colored Opera House with its mesmerizing mosaic plaza, French crystal
mirrors, and Italian marble and rare wood floors. The Great Enrico Caruso, Anna
Pavlova, and Sarah Bernhardt were all said to have performed in that grand
restored Opera House that opened in 1896 at a cost of $10 million.
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| MANAUS OPERA HOUSE |
