Nineteenth and twentieth Century opera houses are finding new lives today. Opera houses were once the center of art, culture, and entertainment for rural American towns–when there was much less competition for our collective attention. Though they faded out of fashion over the years, opera houses have recently been experiencing a resurgence. Author Ann Satterthwaite, of Local Glories: Opera Houses on Main Street, Where Art and Community Meet, reveals the metamorphic stories behind numerous United States opera houses dating back to the nineteenth century with this slideshow of historical and contemporary photos.
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Stonington, Maine’s Opera House
Stonington, Maine’s opera house beckons to all entering the harbor. This early twentieth century building still houses the opera house, which has been restored and brought up to date for contemporary theater and entertainment. © Image courtesy of the Deer Isle-Stonington Historical Society.
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Thorpe Opera House
Most opera houses in small towns like David City, Nebraska were proud buildings on Main Street. The opera house would be on the upper floors and commercial establishments on the ground floor. © Image courtesy of the Thorpe Opera House Foundation.
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Pueblo, Colorado 1890
Some were grand buildings like Pueblo, Colorado’s 1890 opera house, designed by the famous Chicago architects Sullivan and Adler. © Image courtesy of History Colorado.
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Burlington, Vermont’s Howard Opera House
Many interiors were grand like Burlington, Vermont’s Howard Opera House. © Image courtesy of Special Collections, University of Vermont Bailey/Howe Library.
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Mineral Point, Wisconsin
Some opera houses were and are in town halls, others in buildings with the local library. Shown here in Mineral Point, Wisconsin, the city hall, library, and opera house are all together in one building. © Image courtesy of the author.
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Mark Twian
Famous actors and actresses like Sarah Bernhardt, lecturers like Mark Twain, and many theater troupes, opera companies, sundry magicians, and entertainers performed in opera houses across the country. They made the late 19th century a time when more places were exposed to live entertainment than at any period before or since. © Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.
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Joshua Simpkins
Much of opera house entertainment was provided by regional traveling companies like Reno and Ford, which presented Joshua Simpkins, a “sensational rural comedy drama,” in the opera house in remote Enosburgh Falls, Vermont. © Image courtesy of the Enosburg Historical Society.
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Fremont Opera Group
Local groups also offered performances. Here Fremont Nebraska’s Oriole Opera Company is presenting the popular Chimes of Normandy in 1888 at the Love Opera House in Fremont. The town also enjoyed performances by the local Fremont Dramatic Company. © Image courtesy of the Louis May Museum.
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Trenton Political Convention
The opera house was a busy hall where far more than cultural events took place. As a large hall and neutral turf, school recitations and graduations, sports events, elections, political speakers and even political conventions took place in opera houses. Here New Jersey’s 1877 Democratic State Convention convened in Trenton, New Jersey’s Old Taylor Opera House. © Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.
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Tibbits Old Opera House
By the early twentieth century, movies in large, sumptuous theaters were making the opera house on main street seem an obsolete institution. Many opera houses were torn down, others sputtered along, and many were dormant for over fifty years. Here, the Tibbits Opera House stands in disrepair in Coldwater, Michigan. © Image courtesy of the author.
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Tibbits New Opera House
However, by the 1970s the local opera house was beginning to be recognized as an important cultural and community asset. Towns everywhere were bringing the old opera house back to life. In Coldwater, Michigan, the Tibbits Opera House escaped the wrecking ball in the 1960s, and has been restored; first shedding its protective façade and then restoring its cupola and finally its façade. Image courtesy of Tibbits Opera House. © Photograph by Sarah Zimmer, 2013.
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Goodspeed Today
The Goodspeed Opera House perched on the bank of the Connecticut Five in East Haddam, Connecticut is now a stellar example of a revived opera house as well as one that has concentrated on musical theater. © Image courtesy of the author.
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Stonington Opera House
Many revived opera houses have year-round theater, concerts, dances as well as community programs. Here is a production of Shakespeare’s Cymbeline at the Stonington, Maine Opera House in 2013. © Image courtesy of the Stonington Opera House and Opera House Arts.
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Hubbard Hall
Even opera companies have been formed in small towns like Cambridge, New York with a population of only 2,000. In 2015 Cambridge’s Hubbard Hall Opera Theater performed Verdi’s Rigoletto. © Image courtesy of the Hubbard Hall Opera Theater.
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Claremont Opera House
Opera houses today are alive with not only cultural programs, but with many community activities including political events, as they were in their nineteenth century heyday. Here in the Claremont, New Hampshire Opera House Bernie Sanders attracted a full house on February 2, 2016. © Image courtesy of Bill Binder.
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Trenton Political Convention
The opera house was a busy hall where far more than cultural events took place. As a large hall and neutral turf, school recitations and graduations, sports events, elections, political speakers and even political conventions took place in opera houses. Here New Jersey’s 1877 Democratic State Convention convened in Trenton, New Jersey’s Old Taylor Opera House. © Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Image credit: “Pinos Altos Opera House” by Tom Blackwell, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Flickr.
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