The Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman Opera House
Contents
The Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman Opera House is one of the most respected and well-known opera houses in the world.
Introduction
The Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman Opera House is one of the leading opera houses in the United States. The Brooklyn Academy of Music is a nonprofit arts center located in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. The center is known as a presenter of avant-garde and unusual performer-based works, and is the only U.S. venue for many international artists.
History
The Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman Opera House, located in Brooklyn, New York, is one of the oldest and most prestigious opera houses in the United States. The opera house was built in 1908 and was designed by the renowned architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. The opera house has been home to many of the world’s greatest opera singers and has hosted some of the most famous opera productions.
Early history
The Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman Opera House had its origins in the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s earlier theaters. The first manager of the opera house was the esteemed impresario P. T. Barnum, who staged operas and other events there from 1859 to 1865. In 1869, the Brooklyn Academy of Music became one of the first American institutions to offer public performances of classical music when it inaugurated its regular season with a concert by the New York Philharmonic.
Over the next several decades, the Brooklyn Academy of Music played host to a wide variety of performers and events, including such world-renowned artists as Sarah Bernhardt, Enrico Caruso, Feodor Chaliapin, and Anna Pavlova; as well as such diverse events as tours by Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show and Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders.
20th century
In the 20th century, the Gilman and Wilks families engaged a series of architects to expand the site. Edward Durrell Stone and Gaston Lachaise designed separate additions in the 1940s. Stones’s addition, located on the western side of Fulton Street between Rockwell Place and Saint Felix Street, was completed first and included a new 1,900-seat auditorium. Lachaise’s addition was built to the east of Stone’s on Ashland Place between Fulton Street and Hanson Place; it featured an open-air plaza and a 1,200-seat auditorium.
21st century
In the early 21st century, the Brooklyn Academy of Music continued to be a leading presenter of music, opera, and dance. Notable productions included Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess (2002), John Adams’s Doctor Atomic (2005), and Mark Morris’s The Exterminating Angel (2006). In 2007 the academy embarked on an expansion and renovation project that was expected to be completed in 2011.
Architecture
The building
The Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman Opera House is one of the leading venues for the performing arts in New York City. The building is a reflection of BAM’s commitment to innovative and experimental programming, with a unique design that allows for a variety of configurations. The theatre has been home to many world-renowned artists and companies, and has been at the forefront of the city’s cultural life for more than a century.
The theatre
The Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman Opera House is one of the most respected performance venues in New York City. Originally built in 1908, the theatre was completely renovated in 1987 to create an acoustically pristine setting for both live and recorded music. The horseshoe-shaped auditorium is surrounded by three balcony levels, and its proscenium arch Stage is one of the largest in the city. The Gilman Opera House is home to the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s world-renowned opera company, as well as a number of other performing arts groups.
Notable productions
Since opening in 1987, the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman Opera House has been home to many notable productions. Some of these include world-premieres of operas by John Adams and Kaija Saariaho, as well as the U.S. premieres of operas by Harrison Birtwistle and Thomas Adès. The Opera House has also been the site of many other significant operatic events, such as the Met Opera’s Live in HD series and the New York City Opera’s final season.
20th century
The Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman Opera House has been home to a number of notable productions over the years.
20th century
In the 20th century, the Opera House played host to a number of important operatic and theatrical premieres, including:
-Puccini’s Madama Butterfly in 1907
-George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess in 1935
-Langston Hughes’ Don’t You Want to Be Free? in 1938
-Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Berlin Alexanderplatz in 1980
21st century
The 21st century has seen some changes and updates to the Howard Gilman Opera House. In 2003, the venue underwent a $52 million renovation, led by architect Hugh Hardy of Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates, which updated the backstage facilities, expanded the orchestra pit, and reconfigured seating to increase capacity from 1,662 to 1,872. The entrance was relocated to 30 Lafayette Avenue.
The 2008–2009 season was the first in the newly renovated opera house. Major changes included increasing the size of the stage house and fly space; adding access towers onstage left and right; updating dressing room and backstage facilities; and refreshed finishes in public spaces such as lobbies and restrooms.
In addition to these significant changes, many other smaller improvemenst were made including new theatrical lighting and sound systems; repair and refinishing of historic plaster ornamentation; new flooring, wallcoverings, paint colors and finishes throughout; La Verdure Jardiniere installed in public spaces; updated box office facilities; installation of an ADA-compliant restroom facility on Orchestra level; new energy-efficient windows in Jury Boxes on Dress Circle level.
References
-The Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman Opera House: Brookly’s Beloved Theater Gets a Makeover (2007). American Theatre. Retrieved from https://www.americantheatre.org/2007/10/01/the-brooklyn-academys-howard-gilman-opera-house-brooklyns-beloved-theater-gets-a/.
-“BAM Howard Gilman Opera House.” Broadway World. Retrieved from https://www.broadwayworld.com/venues/detail/bam+howard+gilman+opera+house/.
-“Brooklyn Academy of Music – BAM.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Brooklyn-Academy-of-Music.
