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Havana is a city with plenty to offer, Havana has numbers of art museums and commercial art galleries lots of historic sites, a lively theatre scene. Facing the Parque Central, is the faux-baroque Gran Teatro, built in 1837 by an impresario. Today the stately theatre one of the oldest in the New World the glories of its rich history: Caruso sang there, Pavlova danced, Bernhardt acted. The building's principal theatre is the Sala Garcia Lorca, an intimate 1500 seat auditorium with five balconies and good acoustics. Remarkably, the Gran Teatro was once the most technologically advanced in the world, thanks to an Italian scientist named Antonio Meucci. Some say the experiments of this eccentric inventor who arrived in Havana in 1835 produced electrical lighting effects and an internal telephone system long before Bell. • Cuban Salsa Lesson • Havana Art Events • Havana Culture Events • Old Havana Splendor • Camera Obscura • Divina Pastora restaurant • Havana view - photos • Tropicana Cabaret • Havana Fashion & Style • Dance Theater Retazos • Museum of Fine Arts • Museum Universal Arts • Havana's Scenes • Jazz & Night Clubs Meucci's ingenious spirit lives on in the theatre. The theatre is home to Cuba's esteemed Ballet Nacional. Created in 1948, it's still directed by its founding prima ballerina, Alicia Alonso. The Gran Teatro is also used by Havana's flamenco ensemble and by the opera company, the Teatro Lirico Nacional. In addition to dance and lyric theatre, symphonic music is performed by the Orquestra Nacional at Havana's Teatro Amadeo Roldan. At night in Old Havana it's possible to literally follow your ears through the town, as bands of musicians entertain tourists in the bars and restaurants, while Cubans listen from the streets. The groups seem to move around quite a bit, female vocal group called Alina Torres Cuarteto Da Capo singing sophisticated arrangements of popular Cuban songs.  Good spots in Old Havana include the Bar Paris, the Ambrosia and the Hotel Ambos Mundos, where Ernest Hemingway lived. In Vedado, at El Zorro y el Cuervo, the Orquestra Todos Estrellas de Jazz Cubano. Tropicana Cabaret address: No. 4504 y Calle 43, Marianao Shows: Tuesday to Sunday from 9pm - 2am There's always lots happening in Havana.  Fashion in Havana is in a early stage, there are numbers of talented artists and designers, who in a good environment demonstrate talents in arts of fashion. 'La Maison' is Havana's Fashion House located in Miramar. The Mansion is home of Cuban Haute Couture. Havana's most luxurious house of fashion, and luxury boutique. |
      There's always music in the warm air of Havana. Each day, it starts about noon and mixes in the narrow, cobbled streets everything from Cuban salsa, son and guaguanco styles, to Latin jazz and Buena Vista type of music. Lying between North and South America, ethnically somewhere between Europe and Africa, Cuba is a cultural melting pot. The contrasts and contradictions of the country come into focus in Havana, with its beautifully restored buildings in Habana Vieja.  Several museums in Old Havana contain furniture, silverware, pottery, glass and other items from the colonial period. The best of these is the Palace of the Captains-General, where Spanish governors once lived. The Casa de Africa presents another aspect of Cuba's history: an impressive collection of Afro-Cuban religious artifacts. The Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes containing works by Rubens, Goya and Velazquez now is closed for renovations, it is open to the public at a temporary location on Calle Trocadero until renovations are complete. Other museums the Casa de los Arabes and the Casa de Asia with Middle and Far Eastern collections. And as many of these small "boutique" museums are in elegant old Spanish houses with airy courtyards, it's often worth the price of admission - usually $2. The Museo de Finanzas is more than an empty vault where dictator Fulgencio Batista once stashed his loot.
A few old bank-notes are displayed on the walls. Havana's Deposito de Automovil is in a way redundant, since the city streets are already an automobile museum, full of old American cars, but this museum has an impressive collection of vehicles dating back to a 1905 Cadillac. There's also a Rolls-Royce, which belonged to Batista, near the sleek 1960 Chevrolet that Che Guevara drove. There's nothing like the Museo de la Revolucion. Housed in the former Presidential Palace, its displays and documents outline Cuba's history from the beginning of the "neo-colonial period".  Jazz Caffe, across the street to hotel Melia Cohiba A few museums can also be found in Vedado, a neighbourhood to the west of the city's centre. One house that's very well maintained is the neo-classical mansion of Countess of Revilia de Camargo. Today, it contains the Museo de Artes Decorativos, a lavish display of 18th- and 19th-century European treasures that recall a time when Havana was "the Paris of the Caribbean," and many luxury goods, including porcelain from Worcester, Meissen and Sevres, were imported. There's one full of Chinese screens, another featuring English furniture and landscape painting. In the French room, a marble bust of Marie Antoinette smiles demurely, her graceful neck intact.  John Lennon in Havana - park in Vedado After the sun sets, Havana's performing arts come to life. Facing the Parque Central, is the faux-baroque Gran Teatro, built in 1837 by an impresario. Today the stately theatre one of the oldest in the New World basks in the glories of its rich history: Caruso sang there, Pavlova danced, Bernhardt acted. The building's principal theatre is the Sala Garcia Lorca, an intimate 1500 seat auditorium with five balconies and good acoustics. If you attend a performance. Remarkably, the Gran Teatro was once the most technologically advanced in the world, thanks to an Italian scientist named Antonio Meucci. Some say the experiments of this eccentric inventor who arrived in Havana in 1835 produced electrical lighting effects and an internal telephone system long before Edison or Bell. Meucci's ingenious spirit lives on in the theatre. The theatre is home to Cuba's esteemed Ballet Nacional. Created in 1948, it's still directed by its founding prima ballerina, Alicia Alonso, who continued to dance into her 70s. The Gran Teatro is also used by Havana's flamenco ensemble and by the opera company, the Teatro Lirico Nacional. In the first week of March, the Teatro Lirico presented La Leyenda del Beso The Legend of the Kiss, a zarzuela composed by Reveriano Soutullo and Juan Vert. Rarely performed in the English, zarzuelas are sometimes described as Spanish operettas although unlike operettas they often have nasty endings. With a fine performance. In this production, Cuban choreography is well represented by Tony Menendez's Compania Ballet Teatro, In addition to dance and lyric theatre, symphonic music performed by the Orquestra Nacional at Teatro Amadeo Roldan.  It's possible to literally follow your ears through the town, as bands of musicians entertain tourists in the bars and restaurants, while Cubans listen from the streets. The groups seem to move around quite a bit, female vocal group called Alina Torres Cuarteto Da Capo singing sophisticated arrangements of popular Cuban songs. Good spots in Old Havana include the Bar Paris, the Ambrosia and the Hotel Ambos Mundos, where Ernest Hemingway lived. In Vedado, at El Zorro y el Cuervo, the Orquestra Todos Estrellas de Jazz Cubano. Tropicana Cabaret, address Calle 72 No. 4504 y Calle 43, Marianao Havana. Shows Tuesday to Sunday 9pm - 2am. Havana's artistic life is in a state of flux. There seems to be a sincere commitment to the arts in the renovation of the Museo Nacional and the Escuola Nacional de Ballet. Havana's current position at a cultural and economic crossroads makes the city unique: there's a Benetton store in the old town. Havana is surely the only place in the world with statues of both Lenin and John Lennon. But wherever Havana goes from here, it can never return. To see it in its current fascinating state, you must visit Old Havana.  |
Havana Cafe 
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