Opera anyone?
A dynamite blast traditionally launches the Central City Opera season as the town revels in its best-known landmark. Built of local brick and stone, the opera house seats 500 on the lower floor and 250 in the balcony.
The Gilpin County Opera Association raised money by popular subscription to build Colorado's first notable theater. While many wanted a pretentious opera house, Robert Roeschlaub, his daughter Alice later claimed, “stood fast for a different type—one that would be in harmony with the great mountains surrounding it, an expression of the new and simple West.” One-foot-thick stone and firebrick side walls lack decorative elements, which are saved for the front.
After the 1878 grand opening, the house survived by hosting political rallies, wrestling matches, lectures, high school graduations, and funerals. It is still in use today -- you can see opera performances this summer if you take the drive over the Central City Causeway!
sah-archipedia.org/detail%2Fcontent%2Fentries%2FCO-01-GL1...(section%3ACO-01)%20AND%20decade%3A1870s
Opera anyone?
A dynamite blast traditionally launches the Central City Opera season as the town revels in its best-known landmark. Built of local brick and stone, the opera house seats 500 on the lower floor and 250 in the balcony.
The Gilpin County Opera Association raised money by popular subscription to build Colorado's first notable theater. While many wanted a pretentious opera house, Robert Roeschlaub, his daughter Alice later claimed, “stood fast for a different type—one that would be in harmony with the great mountains surrounding it, an expression of the new and simple West.” One-foot-thick stone and firebrick side walls lack decorative elements, which are saved for the front.
After the 1878 grand opening, the house survived by hosting political rallies, wrestling matches, lectures, high school graduations, and funerals. It is still in use today -- you can see opera performances this summer if you take the drive over the Central City Causeway!
sah-archipedia.org/detail%2Fcontent%2Fentries%2FCO-01-GL1...(section%3ACO-01)%20AND%20decade%3A1870s