Ópera

Officially it is Palacio, but everyone calls it Ópera, after the Teatro Real that opened in 1850 opposite the Plaza de Oriente and lent its name even to the metro station. Before the opera there was already music here: over an old washing place rose the Caños del Peral theatre, grandfather of the Real. Around it, the Madrid of the court —⁠La Encarnación, La Priora, the Plaza de Oriente⁠— was laid out facing the palace. Today the curtain rises every night on the same stage. People cross to Arrieta, who also set Madrid to music; they climb the great stairway as if to a box and wind the clock before the performance. Facing the palace, on the hour, the city sings.