Italian opera it reached the republic of Venice. It was here that the first public opera house, the Teatro di San Cassiano, was opened in 1637 by Benedetto Ferrari and Francesco Manelli. Its success moved opera away from aristocratic patronage and into the commercial world. In Venice, musical drama was no longer aimed at an elite of aristocrats and intellectuals and acquired the character of entertainment. Soon many other opera houses had sprung up in the city, performing works for a paying public during the Carnival season. The opera houses employed a very small orchestra to save money. A large part of
Sarasota Opera House Sarasota Opera House The Sarasota Opera House (originally the Edwards Theatre) is an historic theatre, now opera house, located at 61 North Pineapple Avenue in Sarasota, Florida. The vision of a local man and the first mayor of the town, A. B. Edwards. It originally opened on April 10, 1926 with an elaborate three-story entrance containing "eight shops on the ground floor, 12 offices on the second floor, and 12 furnished apartments on the third, while the theatre's auditorium contained an orchestral pipe organ. As noted on the Sarasota Opera's website, the "Sarasota Herald Tribune" hailed Edwards for "having admitted