St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-01-22

open to the public Monday evening,
Oct. 16, 1888; I'll Trovatore." by the
Emma Abbott company, being the
initial attraction. Among those who
participated were Emma Abbott as
Leonora: Zelda Seguin Azucena; Marie
Hindle. Inez; Fabritri, Manrico; Taglia-
pietra, Count di Luna; Brode rick,
Fernando; and Maurice Connell Ruiz.
A few minutes after O'Clock Col. j. II.
Davidson formally opened the theater
I with an excellent dedicatory address.
At the conclusion of his remarks,
| Mayor G. d. O'Brien, in appropriate
! language. received the house on behalf
of the public. Another feature of the
opening night was a charming speech
by the prima donna of the occasion in
response to repeated demands from the
audience at the close of the second act.
! Each lady in the audience received as
souvenir four-page.s bevel-edge, gold
band card, fringed with pink, lavender
and blue, each page bearing an inscrip-
ton appropriate to the event.
Work on the building was COM
menced in August 1882, the excavation re-
quiring considerable time and hard
labor. not being completed until the
spring of 1888. Interior work was COM
menced May Is, 1888, and when the
house was in order its owner estimated
| that the outlay for the temple of
Thesps had been quarter of million
dollars.
The proportions and lines of the in
terror were admirable to view, and for
the uses of the house were almost per-
| feet, not being surpassed by any opera
house in the country. The stage floor
was forty-one feet four inches deep by
! eighty feet in width, the curtain OPEN
ing being thirty-eight feet wide, leav-
| ing twenty-one feet width to the wings
on either side of the stage. The height
! of the prOscenium arch was thirty-nine
| feet, and from the curtain to the stage
! front at the center the width was five
| feet, and the orchestra occupied space
! five feet wide, its inner line being fifty
| eight feet from the outer line of the
dress circle. An actor or singer stand
| ing at the middle of the stage line was
| siXty-three feet distant from the
| fartheSt auditor in the dress circle,
i siXty-eight feet from balcony occu-
pant. and from the EXTREMIST boy in the
| gallery eighty feet.
An audience of 2,100 people would be
! seated comfortably, and one night in
| December, 1888, during an engagement
of the Boston Ideals, $500 people were
! sheltered III the cosy opera house, 200
OF whom were standing. In the par
| quette and circle OH the first floor there
i were 7O4 chairs, in the balcony 626, and
the gallery benches seated 500.
Under the proscenium arch at either
side of the stage on the circle and bal
cony floors were two boxes, eight in all,
| elegantly finished and richly furnished;
and the foyer was separated from the
dress circle by draped partition.
Prior to the opening of the present Win
! ter season the interior was thoroughly
renovated and made as attractive as
possible with paint, elaborate decora-
, lions and furnishings.
| The opera house had ample facilities
and room for the use of occupants of the
stage and attaches of the honse, COM
| priSing dressing room for stars and
property room on each side of the stage
floor, three dressing rooms each side on
floor above, and twelve dressing rooms
and two wash rooms around the trap
room beneath the stage. The last per-
Torrance in the opera house was given
| Saturday evening, Jan. 10, 1889, when
! w. J. Florence closed successful
week with his inimitable impersonation
of Capt. Cutie, in ''Dombey and Son."