here is only one house under this name, so cramped and nasty that nobody goes there".
In these words and more like them, Francisco do Rêgo Barros, Conde do Boa Vista, proposed before the Legislative Assembly of the State of Pernambuco construction of a public theatre, which would offer "legal and honest distraction".
The first project, presented by the French engineer Boyer was rejected as being too poor.
A second, by Louis Léger Vauthier, also a French engineer, was rejected as being too costly.
A third project, also by Vouthier and budgeted at 240 contos de réis, was approved; on April 1st 1841 the foundation stone was laid, "in the middle part of the main front wall".


After the human element, able to heal - or at least soothe - the ills of our primitivism with the clinical eye of European culture, there came "stone from Lisbon, iron from France, cooper nails from England".
To cover the costs of the work, the sun of 12 percent of twenty lotteries, each 60 contos de réis, was conceded. If this was not enough, the government would resolve the matter.


The side chosen, now the Praça da República and formerly the Campo do Erário, came to be called the largo das Princesas. Even earlier it had been known as the Campo de Honra (Field of Honour), in homage to eight revolutionaries who had been hanged there in 1817, and before that, the largo do Palácio Velho, the old palace, for the Palácio das Torres, demolished at the end of the 18th century.


But the involvement of Rêgo Barros and Vouthier´s dynamism did not prevent political and economic difficulties from holding up the work. The opposition, wishing to get at the Governor, attacked the engineer, accusing him of frivolity and disobedience, and calling him "that foreigner" or "that Frenchman". But he had his defenders, such as Antônio Peregrino Maciel Monteiro, poet, member of the Council of His Majesty the Emperor: "I hereby declare that Sr. Louis Vauthier, engineer for roads and bridges, during the whole time in which he has exercised the post of chief engineer of this Province, has displayed distinctive ability, recognized probity, and indefatigable zeal. All the works executed during his administration have won the approval and praise of intelligent men, the Theatre built in this city, for example, and the suspension bridge placed nearby".



In 1940, almost a century afterwards, Gilberto Freyre published "A French Engineer in Brazil", after reading Vauthier´s diary. "He had the ability to direct, pleasure in control, and above all the delight. The fervour, the enthusiasm to identify himself with public works, with his companions on the job, with his labourers, with the general interest, all in all, he had an extraordinary public spirit."
With the fall of the Count of Boa Vista in 1844, Vauthier´s problems increased. Two years lather, when he returned to Paris, the structure of the Theatre was standing, but it still had to be finished and decorated.


A team of four specialists replaced Vauthier; on the eve of its opening, May 18th 1850, the Pernambuco Theatre changed its name to the Santa Isabel Theatre, in honour of Princess Isabel, who was to put an end to slavery, at the time four years old.


Burnt down in 1869, the Theatre was restored under the guidance of Vauthier, who deciphered every detail for José Tibúrcio Pereira de Magalhães, the engineer responsible.


In 1876 it was reopened: spacious boxes, comfortable seats, sculptures, gilding, chandeliers (one with 152 gas jets), tasseled hangings, a salon with mirrors, jacaranda sofas, so it went on. Not a seat was vacant. Opera glasses and fans moved. Words and glances were exchanged. The orchestra tuned up. The conductor took his baton, "Un Ballo in Maschera", performed by Thomas Pasini´s Italian Lyric Company began. With the years, public figures such as Castro Alves, Tobias Barreto, Joaquim Nabuco, José Mariano, Rui Barbosa, Silva Jardim, Assis Brasil and João Neves expounded their ideas from the stage. The Santa Isabel Theatre passed from State to City and back again, and on October 31st 1949 was put under a conservation order by the Department for the National Historical and Artistic Heritage as a national monument.



Stories abound, some of them unforgettable. The one about the Porto das Barcas, for example.
This landing stage was at one side of the Theatre. In 1885 the newspaper "Diário de Pernambuco" recorded that "from today on, for 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., there will be a boat service from the rua da Aurora to the Santa Isabel Theatre and back. The fare will be 80 réis per person. The landing stages are in the street opposite the English Church, and at the Theatre beside the barges. On nights when there is a performance the service will continue until after the spectable ends".



The same paper advertised for strong and courageous men. If they liked boats and wished to ply between the rua da Aurora and the Theatre, work would be guaranteed. And during the journey, which must have been an agreeable one, who knows what fantastic stories they would have heard, straight from the stage, coming from afar?