|
| Website created and
maintained by Charles L Ralph, Fort Collins, CO |
| > | History | Performances | Houses | Coloradoans | Singers | Mementos | < |
|
From about 1870 until 1920, entertainment and civic events in most of the cities and towns of Colorado were centered in opera houses. To distinguish between the baudy, low-class places of entertainment that many theatres were at the time, it became common practice to call a town's formost playhouse an "opera house" and thus make it known that only socially-acceptable, legitimate theatre would be tolerated there. Almost all of the towns in Colorado in the late 1800s had one or more opera houses, many of which never hosted opera performances. A mix of local talent and touring groups occupied their stages in the heyday of live entertainment. Among the variety of events taking place in the opera houses were dances, community meetings, political gatherings, performances by local actors or musicians, vaudeville acts, minstrels, lectures, roller skating, wrestling and boxing. However, in a substantial number of Colorado's opera houses, the denizens experienced real opera, either by local groups or by traveling companies, often of considerable repute. Denverites enjoyed a fairly continual procession of opera troupes from 1881 onward. In 1870, when a railroad was extended to it, Denver became a convenient and usually profitable stop-over between Chicago or St. Louis and San Francisco for the best touring artists and companies. As railroads progressively linked other Colorado cities, entertainers could travel in circuits within the state and, eventually, make traverses across the state between Denver and Salt Lake City. The Denver Theatre (1860) and the Montana Theatre (1861) in Central City are the earliest venues in the state were operas were staged. The earliest "opera" houses we so far have discovered are Goodnight's (1874) in Pueblo, Cushman's (1875) and McClellan's (1876), both in Georgetown, and Forrester's (1877) in Denver. The oldest surviving theatre with an opera history is the Belvidere (1875) in Central City. The oldest surviving opera house is Central City's 1878 building. |
||
|
When the Tabor Opera House in Leadville
opened in 1879, it was said to be the finest theater between St. Louis
and San Francisco.
Architect George King with builders J.T. Roberts and L.E. Roberts
constructed the Opera House in 100 days with an estimated cost
of $78,000. Golden witnessed the opening an opera house also in 1879, but it was not as elegant as the one in Central City or as ostentatious as the one in Leadville. Typical of many such houses, its wooden folding chairs could be removed for dances, including the seasonal grand balls. Not to be outdone by its small mountain neighbors, Denver made plans to build a better opera house. With the backing of the silver millionaire, the impressive and expensive Tabor Grand Opera House opened in 1881. Its total cost was in excess of $860,000, and to be built in a city that was 600 miles west of what was then considered as civilization, the Tabor Grand was indeed a magnificent structure. For the next 30 years opera houses sprang up in almost every town and city in Colorado. Several of the larger municipalities had two or more opera houses existing simultaneously and often a series of opera houses were built in cities where one burned or became obsolete and then was replaced by another. Approximately 150 buildings called opera houses were built in Colorado between 1860 and 1920. Most no longer exist. Fire destroyed several, including, in 1907, the 1897 Grand Opera House in Cripple Creek, and, in 1922, the splendid 1890 Grand Opera House in Pueblo. As tastes in entertainment changed, many of the opera houses fell into disrepair and were demolished. The Tabor Grand Opera House in Denver was one of them. It was razed in 1964. The sites occupied by many of the old opera houses became automobile parking lots. |
||
| Forty seven survivors, or
approximately one-third of the old opera
houses, have been identified at present, but of these most
have been so much remodeled and renovated that
virtually nothing of the original remains. Primarily, they now are
commercial
properties or housing. Only 17 structures remain that have
significant associations with opera
in Colorado and are or will be entertainment venues. Four of these were
called theaters but at least sometime functioned as an opera house:
Orpheum Theatre in Buena Vista, Belvidere
Theatre in
Central City, Elitch's Theatre and the Municipal Auditorium in Denver.
Five former opera houses have been or now are cinemas: Grove (formerly
Isis) in Alamosa, Curran in
Boulder, Unique (formerly Salida) in Salida, Fox (formerly West) in
Trinidad and
Rourke in La Junta. Only eight of the
old opera houses still are called opera houses and are mostly in
original state: Wheeler
in Aspen, Central City, Tabor in Leadville, Dickens in Longmont,
Mancos, Wright
in Ouray, Manassa, and Sheridan in Telluride. Some of these currently
are
undergoing historic
restoration or will be restored: Sheridan Opera House in Telluride,
Orpheum
Theater in
Buena Vista, Belvidere in Central City, and Mancos Opera
House. The Butte in
Cripple Creek has been re-built from original materials. The stately
and well-preserved Dickens Opera House in Longmont,
although a designated historic landmark, now has a billiard parlor
and
bar in its auditorium. This website provides a brief history of opera performance in early Colorado and a synoptic listing of 145 opera houses for which we have substantial information. To provide a more complete catalog of the opera venues of the time, we also have included a few halls and theatres that were the equivalent of opera houses. Additionally, there is a page of links to websites that honor the old opera houses of America or remember the opera and opera stars of the time. Herein can be glimpsed the cultural exposure, including the way opera was experienced, at the end of the 19th century and early 20th century in the American West.
Should you be interested in Colorado's present and future opera, see our other website Opera Pronto. |
|||