Your taking handfuls of popcorn, and chugging down a large fountain drink. Yep, that's right you're at the Metropolitan Opera House in Iowa Falls, Iowa. You take a seat in the front row, and about 118 years ago a person could have been sitting there enjoying an opera.
Opening night was just two days after Christmas. The first show to be performed was “The Carpetbaggers”. The ticket holders were anxiously awaiting to get inside. This was the biggest event ever in Iowa Falls history. The people were dressed to impress. The ladies wore special gowns made just for the occasion and the gentlemen wore their finest suit.
Eugene Ellsworth built the opera house in 1899. The Opera house could seat 800 people before the renovation that split the theater
On November 16th, 2013, I attended a concert choir, fall choral concert. This event took place on the Wheaton College Campus, in the Edman Chapel at 7:30 pm. The chapel was well-lit, with long pews for the audience to be seated. The concert began with the audience looking up into a balcony, where the ensemble stood in neat rows. They watched the conductor, who stood on a stage in front of the audience, waiting for their cue.
In 1901 Cass Gilbert (1859-1934) designed the elaborate hall for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, held in Saint Louis in 1904. This short-lived structure deserves attention, as it was a main focus of the fair and an important benchmark in its designer's career.
Austria hosted a world's fair in 1873, as it aimed to present itself as a world leader and the equal of England and France. The structure that served as the focal point and ideological locus for the Vienna Exhibition was its striking Rotunda, a feat of engineering and design, which is pictured during the fair's opening ceremonies on May 1, 1873.
The town was especially quiet and no one walked into the town. People in the town close the doors and shuttered the windows as if it was a ghost town. I was wondering if the people here could be filled with hundreds of seats. However, the day of our opening ceremony, the audiences were packed the theater. I was wondering where these people jumped
The Broadway Fountain of Madison, Indiana did not originate in Indiana. “The fountain was originally exhibited in Philadelphia in 1876 (U.S.).” “After the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition closed, the Madison Lodge of Independent Order of Odd Fellows purchased the fountain and presented it to the city in 1884 (U.S.).” What makes this fountain so special? “It is one of only four remaining of this style in the world (U.S.).”
Longer history: It was built in 1914, which has longer history than Yale Repertory Theatre. It was built by the H. E. Murdock construction company of New Haven. It was built after two years of the first Shubert Theatre in New York City. The building is designed by New York architect, Albert Swazey.
Temple of Music In the annals of World's Fairs, the 1901 Buffalo fair is listed, as a matter of record. However, it is one of the lesser-remembered fairs. This is not due to a lack of planning or physical appeal, but rather to the fact that on September 6, 1901, President William McKinley was shot and killed at the Temple of Music. This was the kind of event that is so infamous and carries such bad press that it condemns everything it touches, from the setting, the surrounding events, and the people involved, to the same black blanket of notoriety.
The Broadway Fountain located in Madison, Indiana is a famous artistic structure that is well known for its historical background and current use as an ideal location of weddings and other gatherings. In the course of a little over a century, the fountain has been in danger of being completely discarded twice and has been replaced with an exact bronze replica. Designed by French sculptor J. P. Victor Andre, the original Broadway Fountain was presented to the city of Madison in 1886 after being featured in the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition (National Park Service).
But while young people may be wooed to opera with overdone productions, they are not likely to become devotees unless they are captured with beautifully sung music. Otherwise, it's back to The Phantom Menace, where the scenery doesn't get stuck.
Life is more interesting when doing things that are not done on a daily basis. For me, going to an opera is very rare; in fact I have never gone to one until January 31, 2016. The name of it is called Rusalka , an Italian opera. There were many intriguing moments during the opera, which caught my attention even more. From the live intensifying music of the orchestra to the tragic storyline, I loved every bit of it.
There are three tiers of these columns and arches. The columns are Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian (Figure 22). Having the Doric influence at the base of the column and Corinthian at the top. Also arches lined the outside of the theatre. The Romans are well known for their arches so it seems that they use them in almost every building. The interior is just as impressive as the exterior. It is large enough to hold around 20,500 citizens. The seats are built into the foundation (Figure 23). They are built in a way that the main stage is the lowest point and the seats are built with the ones on the bottom being the lowest and the ones at the top being the highest (Figure 24). Much like the aqueduct, the theatre is built for the sole purpose of providing entertainment to the citizens. Unlike the Arch of Titus, it is decorated with cravings or imagery depicting beauty. It is rather plain, having only arches and columns decorating the exterior of the building. It was most likely done this way so it wouldn’t distract the people from the main reason they went there, to enjoy the arts of theatre and plays. The context behind this building is much like the colosseum, this building was constructed to
I attended the Los Angeles Philharmonic classical music concert at the Walt Disney Concert Hall on Friday 29 November 2013. The classical concert started at 8:00pm to the enjoyment of the huge audience that had been waiting for this amazing music extravaganza. Classical music concerts always offer magnificent entertainment and the audience in this concert was expectant to derive such entertainment or more. In attendance were Christian Zacharias who was the conductor and Martin Chalifour who was the LA Phil commanding Principal Concertmaster and Bach violin player. In readiness for the concert, I enjoyed a special dinner prepared for the audience. More specifically, LA Phil staffer introduced us to the evening classical concert amidst cheers from the audience. It was such a refreshing and joyous feeling to be part of this audience.
Guangzhou Opera House is a recently completed building by Zaha Hadid Architects. The project is located in the Chinese city of Guangzhou, completed in 2010. The building’s extreme geometry and the spectacular interior have brought about international awareness and appreciations on its design. Followings are two articles that examine and critique the building. One is “L'auditorium asimmetrico (Asymmetrical Auditorium)”from the architecture journal “Abitare”. The other article is “Crazy Angles, Soaring Steel” by Thomas Lane from the architecture Journal “Building”.
Many cultural enthusiasts, archaeologists, and architects have a common interest in theatre and its origins. People from a few decades back have located the remaining of the oldest theatres in Greece, England, France and some parts of minor Asia. Theatre was a part of people’s lives as it was one of the few sources of entertainment, and it was originated from when people collectively sit in a gathering and listen to a storyteller. There were performances done by different people present at that moment. Later on, this activity kept improving and innovating, and in the result, many theaters for entertaining purposes were built by emperors who ruled the countries or kingdom in those days. The design of these theatres
The start of the new century was marked with the emergence of ‘opera seria,’ a “serious” opera that soon became the standard Italian style. The operas were characterized by a lack of chorus and consistency, as the individuals who performed possessed separate and distinct styles and the order of the subjects of which they were interpreting seemed sporadic and haphazard. Nevertheless, with its dramatic interpretations of various historical and mythological themes, opera seria was thought of as possessing content fitting only for royalty and quickly became a favorite of the nobles and aristocrats. As such, it served to be the main attraction during the ever-popular carnival season. In less than a century, however, as opera seria was thought to be too rigid, extravagant, and expensive, fewer and fewer of the required sopranos, of whom possessed the vocal range necessary for the dramatic works, came out as opera singers as their employment moved to the church for the last decade of the century. Their talents had previously earned them the highest salaries out of any musicians, allowing those on top to live lavishly and comfortably, but the decline of opera seria in Italy forced them to change their paths and career choices.