California Theatre
The history
A 1,100-seat movie palace at 345 S. First St., built for West Coast Theatres by architects Weeks & Day and opened April 16, 1927 with 'An Affair of the Follies' and a live variety show, its Wurlitzer 4-manual/21-rank organ played that night by organist Irma Falvey. Fox West Coast Theatres took it over soon after and remodeled it into the Fox Theatre in 1957; it closed for good in 1973 and sat dark for nearly three decades. A $75 million restoration reopened it as the California Theatre in 2001, its plasterwork, chandeliers and Spanish Colonial Revival details brought back to the 1920s original. Opera San Jose opened its debut season on this stage September 18, 2004, and the theatre has been the shared home of Opera San Jose and Symphony San Jose ever since. Seen here: Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin and Mozart's Don Giovanni.
In brief
Opera San José is an American opera company founded in 1984 by mezzo-soprano Irene Dalis (1925-2014), a longtime Metropolitan Opera star. It opened its debut season at the restored California Theatre on September 18, 2004, and has performed there ever since alongside Symphony San Jose.
Read more →The archival photograph