The new facility would enable the performance of programs not well suited to the large opera house.Īs one of the world’s leading opera companies, SFO has traditionally focused on perfection in all aspects of its performances. Where most opera houses are funded by wealthy patrons, this “people’s opera house” was paid for by ordinary citizens. SFO’s facility, the 3,146-seat War Memorial Opera House, was funded by a voter-approved municipal bond in 1927. The challenge of experimenting at an organization committed to perfectionĪn important part of the city’s cultural scene, the San Francisco Opera dates back to the 1850s. But they hoped that the benefits would extend far beyond this objective - that the project would introduce the Opera staff to new ways of thinking that offered the potential to fundamentally change how it operated.
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As part of the course, two students worked with SFO to help the Opera think about how to best use a new 299-seat facility that would open in early 2016. The evening, organized by the San Francisco Opera (SFO), was called “Barely Opera,” with the slogan “This Isn’t Your Grandmother’s Opera.” Complete with a “Wheel of Songs” that audience members could spin to select the next song, a live DJ, opera-themed drinks, and costumes for attendees to try on, it was designed to remove the intimidation often felt by those new to opera and introduce a younger, hipper audience to operatic music.īarely Opera was the result of a project that was part of a course at Stanford University’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (“d.school”). This night the entertainment would be opera … of a sort. This was not like most nights at the funky music venue and bar the people in line weren’t waiting to see an indie band, or dance to music spun by a DJ. Most of the meetings and ceremonies of the Conference took place in the Veterans Building, but it was on the great stage of the Opera House that President Truman and other heads of state and dignitaries signed the United Nations Charter at a plenary session on June 26, 1945.On March 2, 2015, a line of people stretching around the block waited to get into the Rickshaw Stop on Fell Street in San Francisco. In April, May and June of 1945, towards the end of WWII, the two buildings of the War Memorial served as the birthplace of the United Nations. When it opened, it was the first municipally owned opera house in the world. The Opera House opened on Saturday evening, October 15, 1932, with a performance of Puccini's La Tosca, with Maestro Merola conducting and the great Claudia Muzio in the title role. The complex was dedicated on Admission Day, September 9, 1932.
The cornerstones were laid on Armistice Day, 1931.
In January 1923, they decided to erect an Opera House, American Legion Building, and Art Museum.įoundation work commenced on January 28, 1931. In October 1922, an Architectural Advisory Committee was appointed created, chaired by Bernard Maybeck, it included Willias Polk and many other prominent architects. Kendrick conceived the idea of combining the new performing hall with the growing demand throughout the nation for memorials commemorating the heroes of the war.
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