Grand Opera House (Toronto)
The Grand Opera House was an
, Canada.History
Opened in 1874 on Adelaide Street West, west of Yonge Street, the Grand Opera House was Toronto's premier concert hall during the late 19th century.
The Grand Opera House suffered a number of fires, including a major blaze in 1879 that killed a stage-carpenter, as well as his wife and infant daughter.[5] During the late-1890s, the Grand Opera House had its own press agent, W. A. Hewitt.[6] Although the hall was restored and reopened after each fire, it slowly fell into neglect with the arrival of the vaudeville age in the 1900s, which brought with it newer and more modern vaudeville theatres to Toronto, most notably the Loews and Winter Garden Theatres on Yonge Street.[2]
In 1919, the Grand Opera House became embroiled in an infamous and widely reported criminal investigation. On December 2, the Grand Opera House's owner at the time,
The concert hall never recovered from the fires, the neglect and the scandal, and it was unceremoniously demolished in 1927.[1] The site of the former Grand Opera House is now occupied by the 68-storey Scotia Plaza in Toronto's Financial District.[2] The sole remaining physical legacy of the concert hall is a small lane running south from Adelaide Street West, named "Grand Opera Lane".[1]
See also
- Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
References
- ^ a b c d Urban Decoder Archived 2008-02-05 at the Wayback Machine, Toronto Life, May 1, 2004. Retrieved 2008-03-09.
- ^ a b c d Bell, Bruce. Toronto's World-Class Music Halls, The Bulletin, December 6, 2005. Retrieved 2008-03-09.
- ^ St. Lawrence Hall, Bruce Bell Tours. Retrieved 2008-03-09.
- ^ Oscar Wilde in America (Toronto lecture Thursday, May 25, 1882).
- New York Times, page 7, November 30, 1879. Retrieved 2008-03-09.
- OCLC 8623829.
- History Television, Retrieved 2008-03-09.
- ^ AMBROSE SMALL: What Happened to the Entertainment Impresario & Does His Ghost Still Haunt the Theater that He Loved? Archived 2007-10-16 at the Wayback Machine, Dead Men Do Tell Tales, Retrieved 2008-03-09.