The Opera House is a proscenium theatre in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, located on Manners Street opposite Te Aro Park.

History

The present Opera House replaced earlier buildings on Manners Street. The Imperial Opera House opened in 1878, but burnt down a year later. The Opera House is awaiting the masses

Construction work on the present building began in 1911. It was named ''The Grand Opera House'' in May 1913 with a plan to open early on Boxing Night that year. The principal architect William Pitt was based in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, Australia, and much of the work was overseen by Wellington architect Albert Liddy. The opera house finally opened on Easter Saturday of 12 April 1914 to an evening performance by the American Burlesque Company, with a full seating capacity of 2141 in three levels of stalls, dress circle and gallery, including 50 box seats. The original seating upholstery was made and installed by the Wellington company Kirkcaldie & Stains, and the interior features fine plaster mouldings and an ornate dome. The building was designed with brick masonry outer walls with wooden floors and a timber-framed roof. In 1977 it was restored with funding from the New Zealand insurance company State Insurance, and for many years it was known as the ''State Opera House''. The Opera House, Wellington, interior

In the 1990s and early 2000s the building was operated by the St James Theatre Trust, which ran the nearby

St James Theatre St. James Theatre is a Broadway theatre in New York City. St. James Theatre may also refer to: Australia * St. James Theatre, Sydney, multi-storey building in Elizabeth Street, not to be confused with diminutive St James' Hall, Sydney New Zeala ...

. In July 2011 Positively Wellington Venues, an integration between the Wellington Convention Centre and the St James Theatre Trust, began managing the theatre under the new name of ''The Opera House'' along with five other venues in the capital city. In October 2012 it was announced that the Opera House was an earthquake risk and would possibly have to close. By the end of 2016, funding from Wellington City Council and the Performing Arts Foundation of Wellington enabled the building to be strengthened and restored to sufficient code to continue to be open to the public. The refit also included an award-winning restoration of its original interior features, by a local architect and 14 painters and artists. The Opera House was used for the theatre scenes in Peter Jackson's 2005 film ''

King Kong King Kong is a fictional giant monster resembling a gorilla, who has appeared in various media since 1933. He has been dubbed The Eighth Wonder of the World, a phrase commonly used within the franchise. His first appearance was in the novelizat ...

''.

References

* Kernohoran, David, ''Wellington's Old Buildings'', Victoria University Press, 1994, (page 131) *

External links

* Theatres in Wellington City Theatres completed in 1914 NZHPT Category I listings in the Wellington Region Opera houses in New Zealand 1910s architecture in New Zealand {{NewZealand-theat-struct-stub