Ellie's Place
Posted by: 
pdantic
N 39° 44.719 W 104° 59.841
13S E 500227 N 4399490
This is the new Ellie Caulkins Opera House, logged here at Waymarking.com only 3 days after it opened on September 10, 2005.
Waymark Code: WM1E8
Location: Colorado, United States
Date Posted: 09/13/2005
Views: 32
The opera house is actually located in the old Auditorium Theatre, which was built between 1904 and 1907, and hosted a 1908 political convention. The voters of the Denver area approved a bond issue several years ago to rebuild the inside of the structure, and it is now one of the premier opera houses in the US. The reconstruction of a state-of-the-art opera house inside a 100+ year-old structure was likened to building a ship inside a bottle.
Ellie Caulkins has been a prime force in opera in Colorado and the USA for many years, and she's been involved heavily with Opera Colorado since its inception. Her family surprised her in 2004 by donating $7 million to the construction fund to have the new opera house named after her. She's a wonderful lady and deserves to have this beautiful new opera house named in her honor.
I attended the opening concert at "The Ellie" (its new nickname) on 9/10 which featured such opera luminaries as James Morris, Renee Fleming and Ben Heppner. The acoustics in this facility are outstanding. It's one of the few opera houses in the US (the Met in NYC and the Santa Fe Opera are two others) with seat-back subtitles that translate the libretto for you during the opera.
A huge Dale Chihuly glass chandelier graces the entry area, and there's also a chandelier in the opera house which folds and travels upwards just before the concert begins (somewhat like the chandelier at the Met).
Even if you don't like opera, you should visit this wonderful facility. There's a great Kevin Taylor restaurant located below the opera house, a nice spot for a pre-opera dinner. Enjoy!
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