New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, home of the New York City Opera

Bolshoi Theatre.

The Sydney Opera House is one of the world's most recognizable opera houses and landmarks.

The Palais Garnier, Paris, France.

Gothenburg Opera in Gothenburg, Sweden.

An opera house is a theater building where operas are performed. The venues are usually constructed specifically with opera in mind, although other performing arts may be performed there. An example of this is the Sydney Opera House, located on Sydney Harbour. At many opera houses, the opera season is followed by a ballet season. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2816x1584, 2841 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Theatre Opera house Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts New York City Ballet New York City Opera Culture... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2816x1584, 2841 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Theatre Opera house Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts New York City Ballet New York City Opera Culture... , The New York State Theater at Lincoln Center, seen from the Lincoln Center Plaza. ... The Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center. ... The New York State Theater at Lincoln Center, seen from Lincoln Center Plaza New York State Theater The New York State Theater at Lincoln Center, interior, as seen from the stage The New York City Opera (NYCO) is based in Philip Johnsons New York State Theater at Lincoln Center. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1555x977, 420 KB) Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1555x977, 420 KB) Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia. ... The Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow, Russia The Bolshoi Theatre (Russian: , Bolshoy Teatr, Large Theater) is a theatre and opera company in Moscow, Russia, which gives performances of ballet and opera. ... Image File history File links Sydney_opera_house. ... Image File history File links Sydney_opera_house. ... The Sydney Opera House is located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (802x602, 150 KB) Photo of the outside of the Paris Opera. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (802x602, 150 KB) Photo of the outside of the Paris Opera. ... The Palais Garnier, Paris The Palais Garnier, also known as the Opéra de Paris as well as the Opéra Garnier, is a 2,200 seat opera house in Paris, France. ... The Eiffel Tower has become the symbol of Paris throughout the world. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2560x1920, 281 KB) Summary Photographer: Erik of Gothenburg, EVL. The Gothenburg Opera. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2560x1920, 281 KB) Summary Photographer: Erik of Gothenburg, EVL. The Gothenburg Opera. ... The Gothenburg Opera, or GöteborgsOperan, is an opera house in Gothenburg, Sweden. ... Location of Gothenburg in northern Europe Coordinates: Country Sweden County Västra Götaland County Province Västergötland Charter 1621 Government  - Mayor Göran Johansson Area  - City 450 km²  (174 sq mi)  - Water 14. ... The interior of the Comédie-Française, Paris, showing the stage, boxes, galleries and orchestra sections of the house. ... The Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Italy. ... The performing arts are those forms of art which differ from the plastic arts insofar as the former uses the artists own body, face and presence as a medium, and the latter uses materials such as clay, metal or paint which can be molded or transformed to create some... The Sydney Opera House is located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. ... Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge located on Port Jackson Port Jackson is the natural harbour of Sydney, Australia, also known as Sydney Harbour and is the largest natural harbour in the world. ... For other uses, see Ballet (disambiguation). ...

The first public opera house was the Teatro San Cassiano in Venice, Italy, which opened in 1637. Italy, where opera has been popular through the centuries among ordinary people as well as wealthy patrons, still has a large number of opera houses.[1] When Henry Purcell was composing, there was no opera house in London. The first opera house in Germany was built in Hamburg 1678. Early U.S. opera houses served a variety of functions in towns and cities, hosting community dances, fairs, plays, and vaudeville shows as well as operas and other musical events.[2] The Teatro San Cassiano or Teatro di San Cassiano in Venice was the first public opera house when it opened in 1637. ... For other uses, see Venice (disambiguation). ... Henry Purcell Henry Purcell (IPA: [1]; September 10 (?) [2], 1659–November 21, 1695), a Baroque composer, is generally considered to be one of Englands greatest composers. ... Location Coordinates Time zone CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2) Administration Country NUTS Region DE6 First Mayor Ole von Beust (CDU) Governing party CDU Votes in Bundesrat 3 (from 69) Basic statistics Area  755 km² (292 sq mi) Population 1,754,317 (11/2006)[1]  - Density 2,324 /km² (6,018...

Features typical of opera houses

Because many operas call for large-scale productions, opera houses are usually large – generally more than 1,000 seats and often several thousand seats. Many operas do not require large-scale productions and may be presented in smaller theaters.

In a traditional opera house, the auditorium is normally U-shaped, with the length of the sides deciding the audience capacity. Around this are tiers of balconies, and often, nearer the stage, are boxes (small partitioned sections of a balcony where a wealthy lady can sit comfortably in a wide-skirted ballgown). An opera house generally has a spacious orchestra pit, where a large number of orchestra players may be seated at a level below the audience, so that they can play without overwhelming the singing voices. The size of an opera orchestra varies, but for some operas, oratorios and other works, it may be very large — for some romantic period works, it can be well over 100 players. Similarly, an opera may have a large cast of characters, chorus, dancers and supernumeraries. Therefore, a major opera house will have extensive dressing room facilities. Opera houses often have on-premises set and costume building shops and facilities for storage of costumes, make-up, masks, and stage properties, and may also have rehearsal spaces. An orchestra pit is the usually lowered area (hence pit) in front of a stage where an orchestra accompanies the performers. ... An oratorio is a large musical composition for orchestra, vocal soloists and chorus. ...

Major opera houses throughout the world often have highly mechanized stages, with large stage elavators permitting heavy sets to be changed rapidly. At the Metropolitan Opera, for instance, sets are often changed during the action, as the audience watches, with singers rising or descending as they sing. This occurs, for example, in the Met's productions of Aida and Tales of Hoffman. Although stage, lighting and other production aspects of opera houses often make use of the latest technology, traditional opera houses generally have not had elaborate sound systems, since the singers are normally expected to project unamplified voices. In many opera houses, however, sound systems are being introduced, as some operas or non-opera productions permit amplification. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, the lead section of this article may need to be expanded. ... AIDA is an acronym used in marketing that describes a common list of events that are very often undergone when a person is selling a product or service: A - Attention (Awareness): attract the attention of the customer. ... Tales of Hoffmann (Les contes dHoffmann) is an opera by Jacques Offenbach. ...

Often, operas are presented in their original languages, which may be different from the first language of the audience. For example, an opera presented in London may be in the German language. Therefore, modern opera houses have begun to assist audience understanding of the text of the operas by providing supertitles projected over or near the stage and, more recently, a more complex electronic libretto system on individual screens attached to the backs of seats. Supertitles or SURTITLESTM (a registered trademark of the Canadian Opera Company[1]) are translated or transcribed lyrics projected above a stage or displayed on a screen, commonly used in opera or other musical performances. ... The Electronic libretto system is used primarily in opera houses and is a device which presents translations of lyrics into an audiences language or transcribes lyrics that may be difficult to understand in the sung form. ...

Finances

In the 17th and 18th centuries, opera houses were often financed by rulers, nobles, and very wealthy people who used patronage of the arts to endorse their political ambitions and social positions or prestige. With the rise of bourgeois and capitalist social forms in the 19th century, European culture moved away from its patronage system to the more publicly-supported system that is familiar today. Opera and theatre in general, were opened to mass audiences, and arts institutions, including opera houses, now must raise funds continuously from a combination of government and institutional grants, ticket sales and, to a smaller extent, private donations. ... Bourgeois at the end of the thirteenth century. ... In economics, a capitalist is someone who owns capital, presumably within the economic system of capitalism. ... Grants are funds given to tax-exempt nonprofit organizations or local governments by foundations, corporations, governments, small business and individuals. ...

See also

• List of opera houses
• Theater
• Opera
• List of concert halls
• List of buildings

Opera houses are listed by continent, then by country with the name of the opera house and city; the opera company is sometimes named for clarity. ... For other usages see Theatre (disambiguation) Theater (American English) or Theatre (British English and widespread usage among theatre professionals in the US) is that branch of the performing arts concerned with acting out stories in front of an audience using combinations of speech, gesture, music, dance, sound and spectacle &#8212... The Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Italy. ... A Concert hall is a cultural building, which serves as performance venue, chiefly for classical instrumental music. ... This is a list of famous or notable buildings with articles about them. ...

References

• Information about opera houses from BBC website
• The history of opera houses and description of some of the great houses
• History of opera
• Hughes, Spike. Great Opera Houses; A Traveller's Guide to Their History and Traditions, London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1956.
• Kaldor, Andras. Great Opera Houses (Masterpieces of Architecture) Antique Collectors Club, 2002. ISBN 1851493638