La Scala into a costume. As with most of the theatres at that time, La Scala was also a casino, with gamblers sitting in the foyer. Conditions in the auditorium, too, could be frustrating for the opera lover, as Mary Shelley discovered in September 1840: At the Opera they were giving Otto Nicolai's "Templario". Unfortunately, as is well known, the theatre of La Scala serves, not only as the universal drawing-room for all the society of Milan, but every sort of trading transaction, from horse-dealing to stock-jobbing, is carried on in the pit; so that brief and far between are the snatches
Coldren Opera House Coldren Opera House The Coldren Opera House is a former theater that operated in Iowa City, Iowa from 1877 until its closure in 1912. The original opening of Englert Theatre with its legitimate stage and orchestra pit, plus a huge retractable screen for motion picture presentations, coupled with a new University of Iowa auditorium in Macbride Hall, which had been opened during 1908, spelled doom for another notable Iowa City institution, the Coldren Opera House (initially called the Grand Opera House) at 105 College Street. Although calling itself an opera house, little opera was ever performed there. Rather, the name