- Academy of Music (Manhattan)
The Academy of Music was a
theater andopera house located at East 14th Street andIrving Place inManhattan ,New York City . The Academy was built in1854 and seated approximately 1,500 people. [ An article on the new building appeared in the Oct. 3, 1854 issue of the "New York Times", judging it to be acoustically good but an architectural disaster.] It was rebuilt in1866 after being destroyed by fire.The Academy has been described as “the first successful dedicated opera house in the United States" [cite journal
last = Bank
first = Rosemarie K.
title = review of "Democracy at the Opera House: Music, Theater, and Culture in New York City (1815-60) " by Karen Ahlquist.
journal = Journal of American History
volume = 87
issue = 2
pages = 664
date = September,2000
id= 00218723 ] The first opera season was 1854 from October through December. An Italian troupe was engaged by US actorJames Henry Hackett . The repertoire for the first season was ambitious and included "Semiramide" and "The Barber of Seville" byRossini ; "la Favorita", "Norma", and "la Sonnambula" byBellini ; and "Don Pasquale", "Lucrezia Borgia" and "Lucia di Lammermoor" byDonizetti . From its inception, the Academy of Music not only presented opera and theater, but also served as a meeting and exposition hall for a wide variety of functions, including political rallies, charity balls, receptions, science & industry fairs, etc. In1888 it began to include vaudeville. From January 28 to March 1901, a revival ofClyde Fitch 's play "Barbara Frietchie" appeared there.The venue was rented by labor organizations in the early 1900s and used to stage rallies. It was demolished in 1926 and a
Con Edison building was constructed on the site.A second Academy of Music, located across 14th Street and designed by
Thomas W. Lamb , was opened in 1927 as amovie theater . It served as a venue forrock concert s in the 1970s, and in 1985 became the Palladium nightclub.Notes and references
External links
* [http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchresult.cfm?word=Academy%20of%20Music%20%28New%20York%2C%20N%2EY%2E%29&s=3¬word=&f=2 Various pictures of the Academy at the New York Public Library site]
* [http://www.daviscrossfield.com/academy.htm Academy of Music interior from "Pictorial Diagrams of New York Theatres - 1883"]
* [http://cinematreasures.org/theater/1301/ Cinema Treasures | Academy of Music]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.