It returned to theater and dance in the 60s, but struggled off-and-on until 1993, when it was engulfed by the Civic Opera. The 878-seat Civic Theater was originally home to classic plays, then later a studio for ABC in the 1940s. When architects Graham, Anderson, Probst & White built the Civic Opera House in the late 1920s, they included a smaller theater behind it. It’s actually two theaters combined into one. The facade of the Civic Opera was inspired by the Paris Opera House. Geez, the love story is a little better, isn’t it?įun fact :: The same architects are also responsible for some of Chicago’s most famous buildings, like the Field Museum, Wrigley Building, and the Merchandise Mart. And the chair-like design was the idea of architects Graham, Anderson, Probst & White. His wife, a popular New York singer, sang Broadway - not opera. Unfortunately for all the architecture tour guides (and those partial to love stories), the reality is Samuel Insull built the opera house because he loved the arts.
The building was designed to look like a chair supposedly turning its back on New York as a snub to The Met. Legend says the owner, Samuel Insull, built the opera house for his opera singer wife because she didn’t get hired at the Met in New York. There’s a story told on Chicago’s architecture boat tours to describe the Civic Opera House. It was not built as a love token to Samuel Insull’s wife. 5 Incredible Facts About the Civic Opera House in Chicago The view of the Civic Opera House from the orchestra pit.ġ. So I signed up for the Lyric Backstage Tour and what I learned about the opera house surprised me. The other day I was thinking how crazy it is that the basement of the Paris Opera House is completely flooded ( inspiring the Phantom of the Opera) and how people used beer to put out a fire at the Munich Opera House when I realized I’ve never toured the Civic Opera House in Chicago, despite having season tickets to the opera for two years now. But what I learned from touring opera houses all around Europe is these ornate theaters actually reveal a lot of about the city’s cultural and historical past - and, surprisingly, the Civic Opera House in Chicago is no different. Let’s face it: Wrigley Field probably tells more about Chicago than the Civic Opera House. When I think about places that tell the secrets of a city’s past, opera houses are pretty low on that list, especially outside of Europe.
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