History
Facts
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The Opera Center is our newest endeavor to provide state-of-the-art Education, Artistic, and Civic spaces to the residents and visitors of Seattle and the greater Pacific Northwest Area. Through integrated operations, new partnership opportunities, increased community-wide programs, and a broad economic impact for the region, we can do more than ever before to unlock opera for all.
While we will continue to present performances and programs in the adjacent Marion Oliver McCaw Hall, our administrative and production spaces have been in a building at the end of its useful life. With careful consideration in 2015, Seattle Opera’s Board of Directors moved forward with an incredible plan to build a new purpose-built facility which will revitalize the northeast corner of the Seattle Center Campus. Our new civic home will be a community resource where Seattle Opera will:
- Serve thousands more with a dedicated space for dynamic Education and Community Engagement programs to meet the growing needs of our broad community
- Create an environment for world-class artistry in a new, purpose-built facility
- Establish a welcoming and accessible community resource on the Seattle Center campus
More than 1,000 donors have joined Seattle Opera to support this $60 million capital project. Please join us and make your donation today. We can't wait to join forces with you and the rest of our community to ensure a bright future for opera in our community.
History
1928
Mayor Bertha Knight Landes dedicates Seattle’s Civic Center, including an enormous Civic Auditorium, at 3rd and Mercer, and the Ice Arena, at 4th and Mercer.
1962
Seattle Center developed for the World's Fair. Civic Auditorium renovated and reopened as the Seattle Opera House. The ice arena becomes a large multi-purpose venue named Seattle Center Arena (and later Mercer Arena). Above them both towers the city’s new, iconic Space Needle.
1963
Seattle Opera incoporated and the first performances are of Puccini's Tosca. Glynn Ross, the first General Director, leads company operations housed in Seattle Center Armory, down the hall from the administrative headquarters of the Seattle Symphony. Rehearsals are run out of various locations in the city, but in the early decades out of a Fremont warehouse.
1966
Henry Holt appointed Music Director. A talented and tireless educator, Holt builds Seattle Opera’s National Artists Program into a launching pad for many careers. Meanwhile, massive education programs begin touring operas around the state, filling the opera house with school children for special performances, and sending educators into classrooms.
1973
Noye’s Fludde, an opera by Benjamin Britten, performed at Seattle Opera House by a cast including some 350 school children.
1975
Seattle Opera rehearses its first-ever Ring cycle at a former airplane hangar at Sand Point.
1983
Speight Jenkins appointed company’s second General Director. He will produce 30 seasons of opera in Seattle.
1993
Seattle Opera leases former carpet factory building in South Lake Union as headquarters for operations including administration, storage, and rehearsal. The first opera rehearsed here was Don Carlos.
2000
Company renovates parts of South Lake Union facility with addition of another rehearsal studio, bathrooms, coaching rooms, and a music library.
2001
Costume Shop finally leaves Seattle Center Armory and joins the other operations at the Fred Rodgers Building in South Lake Union.
2002
Mercer Arena used by Seattle Opera and Pacific Northwest Ballet as temporary performance space while the Opera House is renovated.
2003
After 18 months of renovations, Opera House reopens in August with Wagner’s Parsifal as Marion Oliver McCaw Hall.
2007
Seattle Opera signs agreement with City of Seattle to redevelop Mercer Arena site for company’s future civic home, the Opera Center, adjacent to McCaw Hall.
2014
Aidan Lang appointed as company’s third General Director. Over the next five years, he will lead the campaign to build the Opera Center.
2016
The chamber opera As One opens to critical acclaim at Seattle's Washington Hall. Future chamber operas will be presented in the Opera Center.
2017
Mercer Arena torn down and construction begins on the Opera Center.
2018
Company opens the 105,000 sq ft Opera Center, including 20,000 sq ft of dedicated space for community programming and education, a first in the company history.
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Fast Facts
With this building, the company is now going to be noted for how opera ties to the community-it will be an open invitation into the arts." -Board member Jean Stark
Clean-air Features
including recycled building materials and low- or zero-VOC paints
More than
22,000
items in the library
Over
1,000
boxes of costumes and accessories
Reclaimed Wood
from the 1930's Mercer Arena is refurbished as seating in our Glassbox performance space.
Rain Garden
for beautiful and environmentally friendly storm weather handling
Laid end-to-end, our costume racks would reach
2x the height of the Space Needle
$60 million dollar
project funded by donors