Theatre / OperaAuditorio de Tenerife

When we stayed in Puerto de la Cruz on Tenerife in December last year, I went on a coach tour to the north east of the island including the capital Santa Cruz.

Our first stop was the auditorium in Santa Cruz (built from 2000 to 2003) at the southern end of the harbour area, designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, who is famous for combining architecture, engineering, and sculpture, (from the net) "he has produced an astonishingly photogenic opera house. Above its main space a 1,600-seat auditorium in the shape of a tilted cone a wing-like canopy rises almost 200 feet before swooping back to earth. The building can look like a turtle, a crescent moon, an eyelid, a cresting wave, a helmet, a palm frond or an erotic Georgia O'Keeffe flower." (Calatrava is currently designing the future train station - World Trade Center Transportation Hub - at Ground Zero in New York City).

The whole outside is covered with small white tiles made of ceramics which shine in the sun, it is a breathtaking building, some people compare it to the Opera House in Sydney. I have not been to Australia but from the photos I know I would say that it is audacious architecture-wise yet on a much smaller scale than the building in Sydney.

Unfortunately we were not able to get in and look around, a reason to visit Tenerife again!