The Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires

“Am I old-fashioned, or aren’t footmen not supposed to smile?”

Both.

Mmmm, perhaps footman behavior goes backwards south of the equator?
;^)

Footmen are also supposed to be young and strapping eye candy for us old birds…

Not so! Footmen are supposed to be ancient and unemotional. (Though naturally there needs to be a variation in ages for the continuance of the ranks).

Think Prunesquallor’s butler in “Gormenghast”.

footman should not smile

It is time to intrude: footmen in a private house would not smile, but those who work in more public establishments are even expected to do so, not perhaps in England (where in fact there are now very few) but certainly in Rome. There I have myself benefited from the charming smiles of the footmen in the Eternal City’s most exclusive social club, the Circolo della Caccia. The Caccia is the haven of the old Papal (or”black”) nobility, housed in the Palazzo Borghese, grand beyond measure (coffee is taken in a chamber whose gilded ceiling floats 60 feet overhead) and home to a whole flock of smiling footmen!

Thanks for these spectacular photographs of Teatro Colon! My wife is currently traveling with her mother, as they visit her hometown (B.A.). As I pray for journeying mercies for them, it is a delight to see some of the sites and sights she is seeing. (Sadly, I have no opinion to offer concerning the proper, or even improper, behavior of footmen.)

Mr. Cusack,
two years later than you announced, the Teatro Colón of Buenos Aires reopened its doors . . . it’s been really an extraordinary event!