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Peruvian culture is part of everyday life, with frequent local festivals colouring the cultural canvass. Painting, dance and song belong to the people and are the way that different regions distinguish themselves. La Candelaria dance troupes of Puno or the marinera dancers from northern Peru, for example, can be seen at peñas (dance shows) all over Lima.
You can buy tickets from the booking agency Teleticket (tel: (01) 613 8888; website: www.teleticket.com.pe) or from venue box offices. The newspaper El Comercio (website: www.elcomercioperu.com.pe) has daily listings, which are best on Friday. The Que Hacer section of the website has a full list of cultural activities in Lima. The Canal N 24-hour cable news channel (channel eight) has a daily culture show called Sentidos, as well as Agenda, its full listings service.
Music: Peru is on the international circuit for renowned foreign performers and orchestras, often sponsored by foreign cultural organisations. Since the Municipal Theatre burned down in 2000, the National Symphony Orchestra performs at the Museo de la Nación, Avenida Javier Prado (tel: (01) 476 9875 or 9897). Opera shows are held at Teatro Segura, Jiron Huancavelica 257 (tel: (01) 426 7206). Traditional music is everywhere - from musica criolla, with its Spanish and African influences, to the irresistibly bouncy Latin chicha or technocumbia music, that blares out of buses.
Theatre: Lima's active theatre scene ranges from formal, classical performances to fringe shows in theatre bars, with the majority of plays in Spanish. The most professional theatres are the atmospherically burnt-out Teatro Municipal, block 3 of Jiron Ica, in central Lima, Centro Cultural de La Catolica, Avenida Camino Real 1075, San Isidro, and Teatro Británico, Calle Bellavista 529, Miraflores.
Dance: The National Ballet Company shares the Museo de la Nación (see above) with the National Symphony Orchestra. However, for the real dance experience, visitors should go to a peña (traditional dance show) in one of the small venues in Barranco, such as Manos Morenas, Las Guitarres, Los Balcones, La Estacion de Barranco, Las Brisas del Titicaca and Pericho's - all within walking distance of Plaza Mayor.
Film: Peru's film industry is still developing, hampered by a lack of finance but not by a lack of talent. Young filmmakers abound. Ciudad de M (2000), directed by Felipe Degregori, is a strong example of Peruvian Realism and was shot entirely in Lima. Another is Tinta (2001), directed by Francisco Lombardi, which won the Concha the Plata best actor award at the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain.
Many cinemas show American or British films in their original version with subtitles. Filmoteca de Lima, Museo de Arte, Paseo Colón 125, Avenida 9 de Diciembre (tel: (01) 331 0126), has monthly festivals of foreign films including avant-garde cinema. An excellent multiplex cinema is Cineplanet Alcázar, Ovalo Guiterrez, Miraflores (tel: (01) 421 8208).
Literary Notes: In a famous essay entitled 'Lima, the Horrible', Peruvian poet and playwright Sebastian Salazar Bondy launches an attack on a city that has both repulsed and fascinated artists. ‘Atrocious Lima' is the title British author Matthew Parris gave to a chapter in his travel book, Inca Kola. The city is the backdrop for many of Peru's most memorable works of fiction, which have focused on the city as a symbol of the best and worst in Peru.
The country's most famous contemporary author, Mario Vargas Llosa, has turned to the capital for inspiration for several of his novels. Vargas Llosa, who once ran for president and now spends much of his time in Europe, has made an art of dissecting a turbulent society riddled with contradictions. The grime and stink of Lima, as well as the animosity between rich and poor come through most powerfully in his Conversation in the Cathedral (1969).
Alfredo Bryce Echenique's A World for Julius (1970), a witty satire on the lives of Lima's upper classes seen through the eyes of a boy, gives a great insight into Lima life a few decades ago. Julius feels lost in an elegant but ultimately empty world of cocktail parties and golf. Like Vargas Llosa, Bryce lives abroad but his books remain classics for generations of Limeños.
Lima is a city of poets - poetry readings take place almost daily. Miraflores can claim its own 1960s revolutionary poet in Javier Heraud, who left Lima for the Soviet Union, before ending up in Cuba. He returned to Peru to join a band of left-wing guerillas and was eventually shot by government troops in 1963. His best known volume of poetry is The River (1960), a deceptively simple allegory about the journey from youthful adventure towards old age and solitude.
You can buy tickets from the booking agency Teleticket (tel: (01) 613 8888; website: www.teleticket.com.pe) or from venue box offices. The newspaper El Comercio (website: www.elcomercioperu.com.pe) has daily listings, which are best on Friday. The Que Hacer section of the website has a full list of cultural activities in Lima. The Canal N 24-hour cable news channel (channel eight) has a daily culture show called Sentidos, as well as Agenda, its full listings service.
Music: Peru is on the international circuit for renowned foreign performers and orchestras, often sponsored by foreign cultural organisations. Since the Municipal Theatre burned down in 2000, the National Symphony Orchestra performs at the Museo de la Nación, Avenida Javier Prado (tel: (01) 476 9875 or 9897). Opera shows are held at Teatro Segura, Jiron Huancavelica 257 (tel: (01) 426 7206). Traditional music is everywhere - from musica criolla, with its Spanish and African influences, to the irresistibly bouncy Latin chicha or technocumbia music, that blares out of buses.
Theatre: Lima's active theatre scene ranges from formal, classical performances to fringe shows in theatre bars, with the majority of plays in Spanish. The most professional theatres are the atmospherically burnt-out Teatro Municipal, block 3 of Jiron Ica, in central Lima, Centro Cultural de La Catolica, Avenida Camino Real 1075, San Isidro, and Teatro Británico, Calle Bellavista 529, Miraflores.
Dance: The National Ballet Company shares the Museo de la Nación (see above) with the National Symphony Orchestra. However, for the real dance experience, visitors should go to a peña (traditional dance show) in one of the small venues in Barranco, such as Manos Morenas, Las Guitarres, Los Balcones, La Estacion de Barranco, Las Brisas del Titicaca and Pericho's - all within walking distance of Plaza Mayor.
Film: Peru's film industry is still developing, hampered by a lack of finance but not by a lack of talent. Young filmmakers abound. Ciudad de M (2000), directed by Felipe Degregori, is a strong example of Peruvian Realism and was shot entirely in Lima. Another is Tinta (2001), directed by Francisco Lombardi, which won the Concha the Plata best actor award at the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain.
Many cinemas show American or British films in their original version with subtitles. Filmoteca de Lima, Museo de Arte, Paseo Colón 125, Avenida 9 de Diciembre (tel: (01) 331 0126), has monthly festivals of foreign films including avant-garde cinema. An excellent multiplex cinema is Cineplanet Alcázar, Ovalo Guiterrez, Miraflores (tel: (01) 421 8208).
Literary Notes: In a famous essay entitled 'Lima, the Horrible', Peruvian poet and playwright Sebastian Salazar Bondy launches an attack on a city that has both repulsed and fascinated artists. ‘Atrocious Lima' is the title British author Matthew Parris gave to a chapter in his travel book, Inca Kola. The city is the backdrop for many of Peru's most memorable works of fiction, which have focused on the city as a symbol of the best and worst in Peru.
The country's most famous contemporary author, Mario Vargas Llosa, has turned to the capital for inspiration for several of his novels. Vargas Llosa, who once ran for president and now spends much of his time in Europe, has made an art of dissecting a turbulent society riddled with contradictions. The grime and stink of Lima, as well as the animosity between rich and poor come through most powerfully in his Conversation in the Cathedral (1969).
Alfredo Bryce Echenique's A World for Julius (1970), a witty satire on the lives of Lima's upper classes seen through the eyes of a boy, gives a great insight into Lima life a few decades ago. Julius feels lost in an elegant but ultimately empty world of cocktail parties and golf. Like Vargas Llosa, Bryce lives abroad but his books remain classics for generations of Limeños.
Lima is a city of poets - poetry readings take place almost daily. Miraflores can claim its own 1960s revolutionary poet in Javier Heraud, who left Lima for the Soviet Union, before ending up in Cuba. He returned to Peru to join a band of left-wing guerillas and was eventually shot by government troops in 1963. His best known volume of poetry is The River (1960), a deceptively simple allegory about the journey from youthful adventure towards old age and solitude.
View Our Airport Guides for Lima:
Jorge Chávez Lima-Callao International Airport
