An opera house is a theatre building used for performances of opera. It usually includes a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and building sets. In an opera house, the staged performance is generally the focus, as compared to the orchestra. The opera house’s backstage area should have ample wing space for set movement and storage.
There are some opera houses that are specifically constructed for operas, while others are part of a larger performing arts centre. Often, “opera house” is a term used as a prestige for any performing arts centre.
Opera House: Features
The horseshoe shaped auditoriums were introduced by Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Italy. It is the oldest active opera house having opened in 1737 with a seating capacity of 3,285, later reduced to 1,386 seats. It was also a model for theatres that were built later in Europe. Traditionally in the 19th century, Europe’s opera houses consisted of approximately 1,500–3,000 seats, while modern opera houses like New York’s Metropolitan Opera House have 3,800 seats and are counted amongst the largest opera houses.
Nowadays, the stage, lighting and other production aspects of opera houses make use of the latest technology. Traditional opera houses do not use sound reinforcement systems with microphones and loudspeakers to amplify the singers. However, from the 1990s some of the opera houses began using a subtle form of sound reinforcement called acoustic enhancement.
Operas are mostly performed in their original languages which might be different from the first language of the audience. Since the 1980s, opera houses have assisted the audience by providing translated surtitles (projections of the words above or near the stage) but these days opera houses like The Metropolitan Opera or Milan’s La Scala provide two lines of text on individual screens attached to the backs of the seats, so as to not interfere with the visual aspect of the performance.
Must-Known Opera Houses Around The World
First opera house: The Teatro San Cassiano in Venice, opened in 1637 was the world’s first public opera house. Its first construction was mentioned in 1581, and it was demolished in 1812. This opera house had its last season in 1798 and was torn down in 1812 to make room for houses. In 2019 a new project was announced, endeavouring to rebuild the opera house in its historic form for the performance of historically-informed Baroque opera.
The largest opera house: The Metropolitan Opera House in New York is the largest in the world with 3,800 seats. There are other auditoriums in the world that are larger but none that serve as the home of a repertory opera company. The Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center was designed by Wallace K. Harrison.
Famous opera house: The Sydney Opera House in North South Wales, Australia is a multi-venue performing arts centre. It is listed amongst the most famous and distinctive buildings in the world.
Conclusion:
In the 19th century, there were several theatres given the name opera house, there are even a few of them where opera was seldomly, if ever, performed.
Click here to check the list of opera houses and the upcoming performances.
