Opera house as wealthy patrons and it continues to have a large number of working opera houses such as Teatro Massimo in Palermo (the biggest in Italy), Teatro di San Carlo in Naples (the world's oldest working opera house) and Teatro La Scala in Milan. In contrast, there was no opera house in London when Henry Purcell was composing and the first opera house in Germany was built in Hamburg in 1678. In the 17th and 18th centuries, opera houses were often financed by rulers, nobles, and wealthy people who used patronage of the arts to endorse their political ambition and social
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