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San Francisco Opera christened a new home at the War Memorial Opera House on October 15, 1932. Designed in the Beaux Arts style by Arthur Brown, Jr. (1874–1957) and constructed during the height of the Great Depression, it was funded by community donations and is dedicated to San Franciscans who served in World War I. A sold-out performance of Italian composer Giacomo Puccini’s (1858–1924) Tosca was staged on opening night of the War Memorial Opera House. Patrons are greeted by a grand foyer with marble floors, cast-stone walls, and a thirty-eight-foot-high vaulted ceiling. A decorated proscenium arch towers fifty-one-feet over the stage, while a multi-tiered, twenty-seven-foot-diameter, star-shaped chandelier hangs from the ceiling. The large auditorium rivals the great European opera houses and requires that singers expertly project their unamplified voices to fill approximately one-million cubic-feet of space. Learn more about San Francisco Opera’s history in our exhibition “San Francisco Opera: A Centennial Celebration” on display, post-security, in Harvey Milk Terminal 1 and online at: https://bit.ly/SFOperaCentennial
This image was posted on December 16, 2022.