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The 20th century brought great changes into the theatre.
Television, radio, cinema, video altered the course of the
major performing arts and created the new ones. But still
there are hundreds of musical comedy theatres, drama
theatres, opera houses, puppet theatres, philharmonics and
conservatoires where the audience is excited at the
prospect of seeing a play and the actors are most
encouraged by the warm reception.
Puppet theatre
The Conservatoire
Philharmonic
de Musique
Kemerovo Drama Theatre
a stage
An opera house is a theater building used for
opera performances that consists of a stage,
an orchestra pit, audience seating, and
backstage facilities for costumes and set
building. While some venues are constructed
specifically for operas, other opera houses
are part of larger performing arts centers.
an orchestra pit
audience seating
The first public opera house was the Teatro
San Cassiano in Venice, Italy, which opened
in 1637. Italy, where opera has been popular
through the centuries among ordinary people
as well as wealthy patrons, still has a large
number of opera houses.
When Henry Purcell was composing,
there was no opera house in London.
The first opera house in Germany
was built in Hamburg 1678. Early
U.S. opera houses served a variety
of functions in towns and cities,
hosting community dances, fairs,
plays, and vaudeville shows as well
as operas and other musical events.
Since many operas are large-scale productions, opera houses are
usually large – generally more than 1,000 seats and often several
thousand seats. Traditionally, Europe's major opera houses built
in the 19th century contained between about 1,500 to 3,000
seats, examples being Brussels' La Monnaie (after renovations,
with 1,700 seats), Odessa Opera and Ballet Theater (with)1,636,
Paris' Opéra Garnier (with 2,200) and the Royal Opera House in
London (with 2268). Modern opera houses of the twentieth
century such as New York's Metropolitan Opera (with 3,800)
and the San Francisco Opera (with 3,146) are larger. Many
operas do not require large-scale productions and may be
presented in smaller theaters, such as Venice's La Fenice with
about 1,000 seats.
Brussels' La Monnaie
Odessa Opera and Ballet Theater
Paris' Opéra Garnier
Royal Opera House
San Francisco Opera
ARAX MANSOURIAN is a graduate of voice
from the Komitas State Conservatory in Yerevan,
Armenia. She was one of the leading sopranos of
the Armenian National Opera before migrating to
Australia in 1994.
Endowed with an exquisite timbre, broad vocal
range and fine acting ability, Ms Mansourian has
performed in the great operas of outstanding
Armenian, Russian and European composers.
She has appeared in the title role of Verdi’s “Aida”, Leonora (II
Trovatore), Elisabetta de Valois (Don Carlos), Nedda
(Pagliacci), Mimí (La Boheme), Tatiana (Eugene Onegin), Lisa
(Pikovaya Dama), Maddalena (Andrea Chenier), Shoushan
(Davit Bek) and the title role in Tigranian’s “Anoush”.
Tim Pitman began his musical journey
in the mid 1980’s when he began
composing music and performing in
front of live audiences.
In 1992, Tim entered one of the largest
singing competitions ever held in the
South West of England. Out of 3,500
singers, Tim came third, then came out
No 1 the following year, after winning
the same competition.
Later in 1993, Tim Pitman became the
first singer/songwriter to be awarded a
grant from The Princes Trust. This helped
him to turn professional. Since then, he
has performed in over 2,500 shows and
concerts.
Later in 2005, Tim Pitman performed at
The National Indoor Arena as part of
the “Royal Birmingham Tattoo” with
the “NATO Regimental Big Band”. He
put in a sensational performance to
around 20,000 people which has lead to
Tim being invited to tour with Norman
Rogerson – a leading promoter of
military concerts in Europe.
He was born on October 12, 1935,
in Modena, Emilia-Romagna, in
Northern Italy. He was the first
child and only son of two children
in the family of a baker.
In 1954, at the age of 19, Pavarotti decided to
make a career as a professional opera singer.
He took serious study with professional tenor
Arrio Pola, who discovered that Pavarotti had
perfect pitch, and offered to teach him for free.
After six years of studies, he had only a few
performances in small towns without pay.
Pavarotti made his operatic debut on April 29, 1961, as
Rodolfo in La Boheme by Giacomo Puccini, at the
opera house in Reggio Emilia. In the following years
he relied on the professional advise from tenor
Giuseppe Di Stefano, who prevented Pavarotti from
appearances when his voice was not ready yet.
Eventually Pavarotti stepped in for Di Stefano in 1963,
at the Royal Opera House in London as 'Rodolfo' in La
Boheme by Giacomo Puccini, making his international
debut. That same year he met soprano Joan Sutherland
and the two began one of the most legendary
partnerships in vocal history; Pavarotti made his
American debut opposite Sutherland in February of
1965, in Miami Opera.
He died of kidney failure
on September 6, 2007, at
home in Modena, Italy,
where he was surrounded
by his family.