Guayasamín Masterpiece, Monte Carlo Ballet & Cubadisco 2025

Havana is enjoying a rare convergence of European elegance and Latin American artistry this week. Carolina de Mónaco, Princess of Hanover, has brought the celebrated Ballet de Montecarlo back to the island a full decade after its first visit, and she has marked the occasion by donating a personal portrait by Ecuadorian painter Oswaldo Guayasamín to the capital’s Guayasamín Museum.

Painted when the princess was still known simply as Carolina Grimaldi, the canvas now anchors a focused display on the artist’s portraits of 20th-century cultural figures. Saturday’s hand-over ceremony drew an intimate crowd that included Ecuador’s ambassador José María Borja and Viengsay Valdés, artistic director of the Cuban National Ballet—underscoring Havana’s long-standing affection for the “pintor de Iberoamérica.” Museum staff confirm the work will be on view from 19 May alongside preparatory sketches that illuminate Guayasamín’s expressive brushwork.

The princess’s cultural diplomacy continued across the Plaza de la Revolución, where the Ballet de Montecarlo opened a three-night engagement at the Teatro Nacional on Friday. The company’s fifty dancers, guided by artistic director Jean-Christophe Maillot, unveiled the Caribbean premiere of Core Meu (My Heart), a kinetic love letter to Mediterranean folk rhythms set to live music by Italian composer Antonio Castrignanò. Critics have praised the production’s fusion of neoclassical lines and pulsing pizzica for “bridging Monaco and the Tropics in a single heartbeat.”

These performances dovetail with Cubadisco 2025 (18–25 May), the island’s International Music Industry Fair, which will award the Ballet de Montecarlo its coveted Premio de Honor. Expect post-show talks with Maillot and Castrignanò, plus pop-up workshops where dancers demonstrate the company’s famously fluid épaulement.

The visit reached national stature on Saturday afternoon when President Miguel Díaz-Canel received the princess and her daughter Alejandra de Hannover for what state media hailed as a “cordial” exchange on cultural cooperation. Whether you are drawn by Guayasamín’s emotive portraiture, world-class ballet, or Cubadisco’s genre-spanning concerts, Havana is the place to be this week—where Latin American creativity meets European grace, onstage and on canvas.

Image Credits: Carolina de Mónaco Foto © Facebook / Programa Cultural de la Oficina del Historiador de la Ciudad de La Habana