The Grand Old Lady of Locust Street is America's oldest working opera house. The Academy of Music at 240 South Broad Street, on Philadelphia's Avenue of the Arts, was built 1855-1857 by architects Napoleon LeBrun and Gustavus Runge, modelled on Milan's La Scala, and opened with a gala ball on 26 January 1857 followed a month later by Verdi's Il trovatore. No American opera house has served its original purpose longer, and the 1962 National Historic Landmark designation merely formalised what the city already knew. The 2,509-seat hall's history reads like a cultural census of the nation: US premieres of Gounod's Faust and Wagner's Flying Dutchman, Tchaikovsky, Mahler and Rachmaninoff on the podium, Adelina Patti singing for the Prince of Wales, Maria Callas's first Norma, Marian Anderson, Caruso and Pavarotti through the decades - plus Susan B. Anthony speaking on suffrage, Ulysses S. Grant's renomination in 1872 and the first public performance of The Stars and Stripes Forever in 1897. The Philadelphia Orchestra was born here in 1900 and stayed a century before moving to the Kimmel Center in 2001 - though the orchestra still owns the building. Today the Academy is home to Opera Philadelphia and Philadelphia Ballet and hosts Broadway tours, concerts and comedy under the Ensemble Arts umbrella, its interior of ornamental painting, marbling and the great crystal chandelier maintained through a rolling restoration - down to the brownstone balconies returned to their 1857 appearance. The annual Academy of Music Anniversary Concert and Ball remains one of the city's premier social fixtures. The building rewards attention to detail: LeBrun and Runge deliberately built a plain brick exterior - funds went to the interior, on the theory that a simple facade could be re-clad later in marble that never came - and the contrast between the sober street front and the crimson-and-gold horseshoe hall inside remains the house's signature reveal. The 21st-century restoration campaign has re-gilded the proscenium, conserved the ceiling mural and modernised stage systems without disturbing the 1857 geometry that keeps the acoustics famous.

Type: Theater / Concert Hall

Address: 240 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA, United States, 19102

Website: https://www.ensembleartsphilly.org

Capacity: 2509

Opening Date: 26/01/1857

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