French Opera House

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The French Opera House was an opera house in New Orleans. It was one of the city's landmarks from its opening in 1859 until it was destroyed by fire in 1919. It stood in the French Quarter at Bourbon and Toulouse Streets, with the main entrance on Bourbon.

Postcard view from late in the building's history

Designed by James Gallier, Jr., the hall was commissioned by Charles Boudousquie, then the director of the opera company, which had previously made its home in the Orleans Theater. After a dispute with new owners of the Orleans, Boudousquie determined to build a grand new house for French opera. The building went up in less than a year at a cost of $118,500 and for the next sixty years, it was the center of social activity in New Orleans. Not only opera was held there, but also Carnival balls, debuts, benefits, receptions, and concerts. By 1913, however, the house had fallen on hard times and was forced into receivership. An anonymous donor (actually William Ratcliffe Irby) purchased the building and donated it to Tulane University, along with the wherewithal to operate it. The building reopened, but went up in flames on the night of December 4, 1919. [WPA Photograph Collection]

The French Opera House itself was the most fashionable establishment in New Orleans in the years between the Civil War and World War I. Attendance at the opera there was a social event of importance with ritual and tradition.

The first night of the opera season was the opening of the social season in New Orleans, and it is an important feature of New Orleans social life.

"One factor of the institution's great popularity is that one-fourth of the population of the city speaks French in ordinary daily intercourse, while another two-fourths is able to understand it."^{[citation needed]}