The Municipal Theater of Santiago  National Opera of Chile is the main theater and cultural center of the country. Located in the center of Santiago de Chile, it has been fundamental in the cultural development of Chile, highlighting its opera, ballet, symphonic concerts, zarzuela, chamber music and theater performances. It was inaugurated on September 17, 1857 with the opera Ernani, by Giuseppe Verdi. Its general director is Carmen Gloria Larenas.It is currently the second oldest theater in South America after the Teatro Solis in Montevideo.The theater, which is located in the historic center of the Chilean capital, was designed with a clear French neoclassical style, to have about 1.500 spectators in the main room and 250 in the Claudio Arrau room. It presents various ornaments of interest, such as the dome with allegories by Ernesto Kirchbach,​ an endless number of caryatids even in the main room itself and a large crystal lamp of 14.300 crystals and 4 meters high.​ Its curtain, the fourth in its history, weighs more than 1.200 kilos in red velvet, just like the original