Sarasota Opera House facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Sarasota Opera House |
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Renovations to the exterior and interior in 2007-08
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| Former names | Edwards Theatre |
| General information | |
| Architectural style | Mediterranean Revival |
| Address | 61 North Pineapple Avenue |
| Country | United States |
| Coordinates | 27°20′12″N 82°32′38″W / 27.33667°N 82.54389°W |
| Opened | April 10, 1926 |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 3 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Roy A. Benjamin |
| Main contractor | G.A. Miller |
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Edwards Theatre
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| Lua error in Module:Location_map at line 420: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). | |
| MPS | Sarasota MRA |
| NRHP reference No. | 84003835 |
| Added to NRHP | March 22, 1984 |
The Sarasota Opera House is a special building in Sarasota, Florida. It was first called the Edwards Theatre. This historic building is now used for opera shows.
It opened on April 10, 1926. A.B. Edwards, who was the first mayor of Sarasota, had the idea for this amazing place. The building had a grand three-story entrance. It even had an orchestral pipe organ inside! People at the time thought it was a "fairyland" because it was so beautifully decorated.
The famous architect Roy A. Benjamin designed the building. It was built in the Mediterranean Revival Style Architecture. The GA Miller Construction Company did the building work. Today, the Sarasota Opera Association owns the building. This group also runs the Sarasota Opera, which performs there. The opera house has 1,119 seats for people to enjoy the shows.
Contents
Early Days of Entertainment
In the 1920s, the Edwards Theatre quickly became a very popular place. Many famous performers came to entertain the crowds.
Star Performers and Movie Premieres
- In 1927, the well-known entertainer Will Rogers performed there.
- The famous Ziegfeld Follies show came to the theater in 1928.
- In late 1951, a big movie called The Greatest Show on Earth had its world premiere here. This movie was filmed in Sarasota. Its stars, Charlton Heston and Dorothy Lamour, even attended the event!
- Music legend Elvis Presley performed a concert at the theater on February 21, 1956.
Changes Over Time
Over the years, the theater's name changed. In December 1936, it became The Florida Theatre. A hurricane that same year damaged the pipe organ. Later, attempts to make the theater look more modern removed many of its original artistic features. It then became a movie theater that showed films all the time. However, in 1973, the theater closed its doors.
Bringing the Opera House Back to Life
In the early 1970s, a group called the Asolo Opera Guild started putting on small opera shows. They performed in a smaller theater nearby. By 1974, this group began producing their own operas.
Major Restoration Project
In 1979, the Guild bought the old Edwards Theatre for $150,000. The building needed a lot of work to be ready for opera productions. The Association started a big renovation project in 1982. This hard work led to the building being listed on the National Register of Historic Places in March 1984. It was officially named the Sarasota Opera House.
Modern Upgrades and Reopening
Even more renovations happened between 2007 and 2008. These changes made the opera house even better. The project cost $20 million.
The inside of the auditorium was completely redone. This created a new seating arrangement. Public areas and the Opera Club on the second floor were made larger. The original three-story atrium was uncovered and a new skylight was added. This atrium and skylight were part of the building's original design from 1926. However, they had been covered up by a ceiling.
In 2008, the Sarasota Opera reopened with a famous opera called Rigoletto by Verdi. The seating was expanded to about 1,200 seats. After the 2009-2010 season, some seats on the sides were removed to make more aisles. This left the opera house with its current 1,119 seats.
See also
In Spanish: Edwards Theater para niños
