Opera house Opera house An opera house is a theatre building used for opera performances that consists of a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and set building. While some venues are constructed specifically for operas, other opera houses are part of larger performing arts centers. Indeed the term "opera house" itself is often used as a term of prestige for any large performing-arts center. The first public opera house was the Teatro San Cassiano in Venice, opened in 1637. Italy is a country where opera has been popular through the centuries among ordinary people as well
Piper's Opera House to the first story of the new building at the northwest corner of B and Union Streets. The second story of the building was rented out. Tom Maguire and John Burns opened Maguire's Opera House in 1863. Maguire's was where actress Adah Isaacs Menken appeared in "Mazeppa". On October 9, 1867, Piper and his financial sponsor John William Mackay bought Maguire's and renamed it Piper's Opera House. On October 30, 1866, Mark Twain delivered a lecture from its stage. The opera house played host to Shakespearean thespians Edwin Booth, Thomas R. Keene, Lawrence Barrett and John Edward McCullough. Actors Frank