This exhibition will take place from November 9th, 2019 until March 2020 in the Gallier House exhibition space.

100 years ago in December of 1919, New Orleans’ French Opera House burned to the ground in the French Quarter. Located at the corner of Bourbon and Toulouse Streets, the French Opera House was one of the most significant structures in New Orleans and arguably North America for musical, cultural, and architectural reasons. 

This exhibition will highlight the rise of the French Opera House, which was designed by James Gallier Jr., through imagery and original artifacts. It will also chronicle opera’s heyday in the Crescent City until the building’s tragic demise, which also became a call for historic preservation in a city full of structures worth saving. 

Join us for additional exhibition programming:

November 9th, 5:30 PM: Exhibition Opening and Lecture Recital with OperaCreole

November 13th, 5:30 PM: “All the World’s Stages: From Opera Houses to Concert Saloons in Old New Orleans” with Victor Holtcamp

December 11th, 5:30 PM: “The Impact of the French Opera House on the Preservation Movement” with Ann Masson

Image:  H. Tardy Hart, Bourbon Street, 601 block, New Orleans, LA. French Opera, interior, ca. 1918. Ink and watercolor on paper. Louisiana Drawings, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Tulane University Special Collections