Opera in Atlanta has a long and uneven history. The first shows performed in Atlanta predate the American Civil War and were primarily performed in makeshift facilities modified for the operatic arts. The main company for the region is the Atlanta Opera, founded in 1979, which produces mainstage opera productions and arts education programs for all ages. The Atlanta Opera is based at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre.
The first shows performed in Atlanta predate the American Civil War and were primarily performed in makeshift facilities modified for the operatic arts. Reconstruction saw the formation of the Atlanta Opera House and Building Association. The association obtained the southwest corner of Marietta Street and Forsyth Street to construct a five-story opera house. By 1868, they were out of money. Instead of hosting great performances, Atlanta's first opera house, the Kimball Opera House as it was later known, was sold at a loss. It served as Georgia's state capitol from January 1869 to July 1889.
In 1870, Laurent DeGive, Atlanta's Belgian consul, built DeGive's Opera House on Marietta Street. The cheap seats were 25 cents. Laurent deGive struggled with presenting touring companies because of the inflated cost of train travel through the incompletely reconstructed South. In 1893 DeGive built a second and larger theater, DeGive's Grand Opera House, at 157 Peachtree Street, which in 1916 was leased to the Loew family. Later renamed Loew's Grand Theatre, it subsequently became famous for the 1939 premiere of the movie, Gone with the Wind . Margaret Mitchell, the author of the story was an Atlanta native.
By 1910, the Metropolitan Opera began touring through Atlanta and the South began a 76-year love affair with its Yankee brethren. The summer Met tours became an annual week-long event that drew many of Dixie's wealthiest citizens and even more socialites. It was so popular that it began to attract an international celebrity crowd. It is reported that during Atlanta's golden age of opera, the majority of the social elite would attend the first act and then leave at intermission for drinks and an evening of party-going. It was better to be seen than to hear. Eager young students would often crowd outside the theater in hopes of gaining partially used tickets and catch the remainder of the show. As the yearly event outgrew all of Atlanta's existing theaters - even the Fabulous Fox, city aristocrats lobbied and construction began on the Atlanta Civic Center. The yearly Met shows thrived there until the Met disbanded its touring program in 1986.
Various local Atlanta artists attempted to create a company solely for Atlanta. There was even an ill-fated push to spark the interest of legendary chorister and conductor Robert Shaw to head a regional company. Some of the companies that were founded and have since vanished are the Atlanta Chamber Opera (1960s), Opera Atlanta (late 1960s), Georgia Opera (1970s), Atlanta Lyric Opera (1976), Atlanta Civic Opera (1979), and Opera Onyx (1980s). The Atlanta Opera which continues as the area's premiere opera troupe, was founded in 1979.
The 1990s saw the addition of the regional companies Americolor Opera Alliance and Capitol City Opera. Additional companies were founded in 2006 and 2007 including OperaSouth, The New Opera and Peachtree Modern Opera.
Peachtree Street is one of several major streets running through the city of Atlanta. Beginning at Five Points in downtown Atlanta, it runs North through Midtown; a few blocks after entering into Buckhead, the name changes to Peachtree Road at Deering Road. Much of the city's historic and noteworthy architecture is located along the street, and it is often used for annual parades,, as well as one-time parades celebrating events such as the 100th anniversary of Coca-Cola in 1986 and the Atlanta Braves' 1995 World Series victory.
Midtown Atlanta, or Midtown, is a high-density commercial and residential neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia. The exact geographical extent of the area is ill-defined due to differing definitions used by the city, residents, and local business groups. However, the commercial core of the area is anchored by a series of high-rise office buildings, condominiums, hotels, and high-end retail along Peachtree Street between North Avenue and 17th Street. Midtown, situated between Downtown to the south and Buckhead to the north, is the second-largest business district in Metro Atlanta. In 2011, Midtown had a resident population of 41,681 and a business population of 81,418.
The Fox Theatre, a former movie palace, is a performing arts venue located at 660 Peachtree Street NE in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia, and is the centerpiece of the Fox Theatre Historic District.
The architecture of Atlanta is marked by a confluence of classical, modernist, post-modernist, and contemporary architectural styles. Due to the complete destruction of Atlanta by fire in 1864, the city's architecture retains no traces of its Antebellum past. Instead, Atlanta's status as a largely post-modern American city is reflected in its architecture, as the city has often been the earliest, if not the first, to showcase new architectural concepts. However, Atlanta's embrace of modernism has translated into an ambivalence toward architectural preservation, resulting in the destruction of architectural masterpieces, including the Commercial-style Equitable Building, the Beaux-Arts style Terminal Station, and the Classical Carnegie Library. The city's cultural icon, the Neo-Moorish Fox Theatre, would have met the same fate had it not been for a grassroots effort to save it in the mid-1970s.
A movie palace is any of the large, elaborately decorated movie theaters built between the 1910s and the 1940s. The late 1920s saw the peak of the movie palace, with hundreds opened every year between 1925 and 1930. With the advent of television, movie attendance dropped and many movie palaces were razed or converted into multiple screen venues or performing arts centers.
Loew's Grand Theater, originally DeGive's Grand Opera House, was a movie theater at the corner of Peachtree and Forsyth Streets in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States. It was most famous as the site of the 1939 premiere of Gone with the Wind, which was attended by the stars of the film, except for the African Americans who appeared in it, who were also excluded from the souvenir program.
Thomas White Lamb (1871–1942) was an American architect, born in Scotland. He is noted as one of the foremost designers of theaters and cinemas in the 20th century.
The Cathedral of Saint Philip, also known as St. Philip's Cathedral or St. Philip's is an Episcopal cathedral in the U.S. State of Georgia, in the City of Atlanta. Located on Peachtree Road in Buckhead (Atlanta) at what is popularly called "Jesus Junction". St. Philip's has become one of the largest Episcopal congregations in the United States, with a membership of approximately 7,000. St. Philip's is named in honor of St. Philip the Evangelist, a deacon in the early Christian Church. The Cathedral of St. Philip is the seat of The Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta.
The Atlanta Civic Center was a theater located in Atlanta, Georgia. It closed in 2014. The theater, which seats 4,600, regularly hosted touring productions of Broadway musicals, concerts, seminars, comedy acts, and high school graduations and commencement ceremonies for Atlanta's John Marshall Law School. In addition to performances, the civic center could host conferences and exhibits as well, with 5,800 square feet of meeting space. The civic center was owned and operated by the Atlanta city government’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs, but brought in enough revenue to be self-supporting.
The Ohio Theatre is a performing arts center on Capitol Square in Downtown Columbus, Ohio. Known as the "Official Theatre of the State of Ohio", the historic 1928 movie palace was saved from demolition in 1969 and completely restored. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1977 as one of the nation's finest surviving grand theaters.
The Capitol Cinema was the largest movie theatre ever built in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and was the city's only true movie palace. Opened in 1920, the 2530-seat cinema was regarded as one of the best cinemas designed by famed theatre-architect Thomas W. Lamb.
The Atlanta Opera is an opera company located in the Atlanta metropolitan area. Founded in 1979, it produces mainstage opera productions and arts education programs for Metropolitan Atlanta and the Southeast.
The Georgian Terrace Hotel in Midtown Atlanta, part of the Fox Theatre Historic District, was designed by architect William Lee Stoddart in a Beaux-Arts style that was intended to evoke the architecture of Paris. Construction commenced on July 21, 1910, and ended on September 8, 1911, and the hotel opened on October 2, 1911. The George C. Fuller Construction Company was contractor, and the developer was Joseph F. Gatins, Jr.
Streetcars originally operated in Atlanta downtown and into the surrounding areas from 1871 until the final line's closure in 1949.
In Atlanta, Georgia, trolleybuses, generally called trackless trolleys there, were a major component of the public transportation system in the middle decades of the 20th century, carrying some 80 percent of all transit riders during the period when the system was at its maximum size. At the end of 1949 Atlanta had a fleet of 453 trolleybuses, the largest in the United States, and it retained this distinction until 1952, when it was surpassed by Chicago.
DeGive's Opera House was the main venue for opera in Atlanta from 1871 until 1893.
Laurent DeGive was the Belgian consul in Atlanta, Georgia in the late 19th century. He arrived in Atlanta in 1859. He built two opera houses in Atlanta, DeGive's Opera House, and DeGive's Grand Opera House, which would later become Loew's Grand Theatre, where Gone with the Wind (film) premiered.
The arts in Atlanta are well-represented, with a particularly prominent presence in music, fine art, and theater.
Atlanta has a thriving music industry and is considered to be a capital of hip-hop including crunk, of R&B and its offshoot neo-soul, and of gospel music - in addition to a thriving indie-rock and live music scene. Classical, country and blues are also well represented. From the 1920s through 1950s the city was a major center for country music.
The Peachtree Arcade was a shopping arcade in Downtown Atlanta which stood from 1917 to 1964 on the site of what is now the State of Georgia Building on Peachtree Street just south of Marietta Street. The architect was A. Ten Eyck Brown and the developer was R.R. Otis of the real estate firm Otis & Holliday. It featured Beaux-Arts style façades that opened onto both Peachtree and Broad streets. Inside, the building had marble and brass finish, three levels of shop corridors and an iron and glass ceiling.