Teatro Auditorio San Lorenzo de El Escorial

The Teatro Auditorio San Lorenzo de El Escorial opened in 2006 in the Felipe II Park, near the monastery and Mount Abantos. Most of its ten levels lie below ground, reducing the building's visual impact within its historic surroundings. Granite cladding relates the exterior to the architecture of the town. Two auditoriums are arranged around a shared foyer, with the smaller hall serving audiences of about three hundred. A rehearsal room and backstage facilities support the performance spaces. The design also preserved an existing Spanish fir, incorporating the tree into the relationship between building and landscape. Two theatres serve the same Guadarrama town: the Real Coliseo of 1771, a small court house of Charles III's reign, and this later auditorium, which takes the larger forces. Opera and zarzuela, symphonic concerts, dance, flamenco and children's programmes fill its season, and each year an international festival of the performing arts runs here through the closing weeks of summer, when Madrid's audience is up in the sierra and glad of somewhere cool to sit.