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
DeGive's Opera House DeGive's Opera House DeGive's Opera House was the main venue for opera in Atlanta from 1871 until 1893. The Atlanta History Center describes how Belgian consul Laurent DeGive purchased an unfinished building at the corner of Marietta and Forsyth and hired architect and civil engineer Max Corput to design the opera house. The opera house opened on January 24, 1870, and was expanded in 1873-4 to accommodate over 2,000 people. The opera house was later occupied by the Columbia Theater and later still by the Bijou Theater. The building was demolished in 1921 to make way for the construction of