After the Final Curtain: The Sorg Opera House in Middletown, OH originally opened on September 12, 1891. Paul J. Sorg, Middletown’s first multi-millionaire, had the opera house built as a gift to the city of Middletown. Sorg hired Samuel Hannaford, who designed the Cincinnati Music Hall, to design the 1,200-seat opera house.
3 comments:
This article was a very interesting read for me because of how close I live to Middletown, Ohio. Now, Middletown is more commonly known as a more dangerous place with high drug usage in the community. My mom always tells me stories about during her upbringing, she loved going to Middletown because some of my family lived there and it offered a very vibrant community and environment to be in. It is sad to see the big shift in the city but after reading this article, it gives me a lot more hope about the town. Pushing the arts into a community can spark change and growth in people by giving the opportunity of entertainment and performance. This Opera House provides the chance for residents to see a form of art that is typically only available for people in the upper class. This wonderful renovation I feel will change the town and the reputation Middletown holds.
I loved reading about this theater in Middletown, Ohio. The theater has a rich, eventful, and complicated history and its a theater that I may have never heard about if I hadn’t clicked on the article. The part that looks restored looks gorgeous. It’s wonderful that this space has been restored so many times and been allowed to adapt as time has passed. I know that the theater needs $9-11 million, but the pictures make the theater theater look gorgeous. I hope Middletown can get the money to restore the theater, but I’m glad that they are able to perform in the meantime. This will allow the theater they to gain traction and give the theater a source of income in the meantime. I wonder what they will do next. Overall, I wish the theater the best in trying to get its money and I’m going to look back soon to see what's happening.
There were two very interesting parts in this article. The first was that the first multi-millionaire of Middletown built this opera house as a gift to the city. It indeed was a very generous and magnanimous gift to begin with. I think the fact that it was a gift to the city and that the ownership is on the people of Middletown, not any single individual, could be why the venue could be renovated and continue to be a performance venue. There are many beautiful architectures in Pittsburgh, most of which I think can be turned into beautiful theaters. But the owners of the churches are individuals who do not necessarily have to act for the public good, and therefore will not risk investing much money to build theaters that will not likely yield much profit. And the second was that the segregation policy was reflected in the design of the theater, and that they chose to build in a separate entrance, ticket booth and balcony for non-white patrons. It is interesting how public policy can smear into everything, including the architecture of a theater.
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