Detroit Opera House - Location for a PBS Concert DVD

**Gistok** · October-19-11, 02:01 AM

I've had to keep this under wraps since the Theatre tours back in August... [[I nearly exploded!)... but on October 27th, the Detroit Opera House will be the site for the production of the Concert DVD for a new Operatic-Pop group by the name of IL VOLO.... a cross between the 3 Tenors and the Jonas Brothers.

http://www.ilvolomusic.com/news/defa...tent=nid_36914

They hit the world stage on May 19th when 30 million viewers saw them on American Idol, where according to AI owner CBS... "they brought down the house" with a standing ovation...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbZvz0pXV48

This group consists of a 3 singers... a 16-17-18 year old, and they have the same manager that discovered Andrea Bocelli, and the same Hollywood record label as Eminem and Lady Gaga.

I posted a video on them in the "what are you listening to" back at the beginning of 2011. Deja Vu...

IL VOLO has done their first ever concerts starting in North American in September, with the Detroit Fox concert just this past Sunday at 4PM, followed by an Detroit area Italian-American charity dinner [[$250/head) at the Detroit Opera House afterwards [[hosts included local businessmen Tony Celani, Anthony Soave, and others)...

http://www.dbusiness.com/DBusiness/S...on-October-16/

Detroit PBS Station WTVS is the IL VOLO host for next March's PBS pledge drive, and a collaberation between WTVS, the Detroit Opera House, and Geffen Records/Universal Music will bring this PBS sponsored concert to Detroit and via the DVD.

It's nice that [[via the concert DVD) we get to show off one of Detroit's "crown jewels" to the world... since they have a strong following in Europe and Asia... and this DVD will likely be released worldwide, after the initial PBS offering.

Ironically IL VOLO has done something that NO OTHER group has ever done... produce music for the very young [[yes... including screaming teenage girls), the very old, and all ages in between. "This is our power" says IL VOLO... being able to bridge all age gaps... And by the look of the ages attending their concert at the Fox this weekend... they have succeeded.

Here's their very successful "IL MONDO" [[The World... a love song)...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g13wrRvepUk

.... also looking forward to seeing Detroit's glorious Opera House during next March's PBS pledge drive concert...

**Gistok** · October-19-11, 03:13 AM

The Detroit Opera House PBS IL VOLO concert will be aired on March 3, 2012. However... it will be premiered on Dec. 7, 2011 at 8PM on WTVS, which will be seen in metro Detroit and 1000 cities across Canada [[WTVS is on Canada's Cable System).

**Pam** · October-19-11, 06:38 AM

How was the Opera House selected for this?

**riviera** · October-19-11, 08:24 AM

What Pam said.

It's not exactly the number one choice on the global accoustic theatre circuit.

**Gistok** · October-19-11, 09:52 AM

Originally Posted by Pam

How was the Opera House selected for this?

Well the fact that WTVS Detroit decided to be the IL VOLO pledge drive host probably didn't hurt. But this past weekend IL VOLO and the Geffen/Unversal folks were at the Detroit Opera House after their Fox Theatre performance. While I wasn't at their $250 per person banquet, I imagine that they likely did some performing while there. The place does sell itself... from an opulence and acoustic perspective.

When the late Luciano Pavoratti and Dame Joan Sutherland christened it back in 1996, they were surprised at the marvelous acoustics. Later New York opera critics [[not known for kindness) were surprised as well when world class opera stars that usually performed at New York and San Francisco, and little else, were making pilgrimages to Detroit to perform here. Andrea Bocelli made his North American opera premier in Werther in the late 1990s.

I attended a Cleveland-San Jose Ballet "Elvis Blue Suede Shoes" tribute about a decade ago... and was horrified to see that they were doing classic ballet to no music [[I hate classic ballet) before they did their Elvis music "schtick". Well sitting in the back row of the DOH balcony you could hear every ballet footstep they made... unbelieveable from such a distance.

When theatre architect C. Howard Crane designed the Capitol Theatre [[DOH) back in 1922, he designed it like an Italian Opera House... and that's just what it "sounds" and with its' Italian Renaissance opulence... "looks" like.

Crane had just finished his Orchestra Hall design 3 years earlier [[1919), and people compare that with Carnegie Hall. No theatre architect had mastered acoustics as well as Crane did. Most American theatre conversions to opera/symphony performance require sound baffles, moveable shells, or other devices... but not Crane's venues. All they had to have done was to have the original plasterwork and finishes restored, and they were worthy of "world class" operatic or symphonic use.

And like this image of the circulation space of the DOH Grand Foyer shows... the place does sell its' self....
http://www.michiganopera.org/plan-your-visit/tours/

As Crane so aptly noted... "if it was pleasing to the eye... it would be pleasing to the ear as well"...

If you've never been there... that is a pity...

**Gistok** · October-19-11, 10:01 AM

One other point of interest about the DOH.... if you ever attend a function, do check out the Balcony [[3rd level) "whispering galleries"... on either side of the Grand Foyer. There you can stand at one end of the oval ceiling rotunda, and be able to whisper to and hear every word from someone whispering from 30 ft. away at the other end of the rotunda [[even with others milling about, having conversations). Just one of C. Howard Crane's little games, to show off his acoustic genius...

**Gistok** · October-19-11, 10:25 AM

Here are some images of the inside of the Detroit Opera House, for those souls that haven't been down there yet.... taken by a visitor to the 2008 Preservation Wayne Historic Theatre Tour...

Ford [[Broadway) Lobby....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/decojim...57606646370874
http://www.flickr.com/photos/decojim...57606646370874

Grand Foyer...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/decojim...57606646370874
http://www.flickr.com/photos/decojim...57606646370874

Auditorium...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/decojim...57606646370874
http://www.flickr.com/photos/decojim...57606646370874
http://www.flickr.com/photos/decojim...57606646370874

**Pam** · October-19-11, 11:42 AM

But this past weekend IL VOLO and the Geffen/Unversal folks were at the Detroit Opera House after their Fox Theatre performance

Ok, this answers my question, but thanks for the additional info.

[[I have been there a few times.)

**Gianni** · October-19-11, 01:36 PM

I don't think they just decided after the show at the Fox Sunday. They announced the Opera House PBS concert during the show at the Fox and had fliers already printed up.

**Gistok** · October-19-11, 01:49 PM

Pam, what may make this especially good for WTVS and the DOH is that the group in question... IL VOLO, released their first self titled CD back in April [[Italian, English and Spanish songs), with a Spanish language CD that came out in June. Well that Spanish one is up for 2 Latin Grammy Awards later this year... including best new Pop artists. The regular Grammy Awards [[for the Feb. 2012 telecast) won't be announced until Nov. 30... but if they get some Grammy nominations... that'll make this DVD release even better.

Originally the group had planned a DVD concert at the Roman Coliseum... but the discussions with PBS/DOH [[plus the excessive tourist demands on the Coliseum) must have changed the minds of folks at Geffen Records/Universal Music.

Also, I have a book on American Opera Houses... and I don't think one exists here that is more "Italian" than the Detroit Opera House. Since you've been to the DOH many times Pam... the DOH has 1 clear span balcony that spans the center of the house. In real Italian Opera Houses, there are usually rows of opera boxes stacked on top of each other around the back and sides of the auditorium. While that may look nicer, the truth is that it provides for very poor sight lines for opera patrons.

**Gistok** · October-19-11, 01:51 PM

Originally Posted by Gianni

I don't think they just decided after the show at the Fox Sunday. They announced the Opera House PBS concert during the show at the Fox and had fliers already printed up.

Gianni... [[nice Italian name!

)... thanks for bringing me up to speed! That explains why some concertgoers [[I wasn't there) knew about the next concert...

The PBS/DOH folks had been in discussions for months. I'm sure that an onsite inspection by Geffen/Universal happened early on.

**DorothyD** · October-20-11, 09:32 AM

I remember about ten years ago I ushered for a show at the Opera House that was going to be the evening entertainment for people who were in town attending a convention at Cobo Hall. I don't remember exactly, but I think they were urban planners or something like that. Anyway, I was watching a man walking around the lobby taking it all in. He approached me and said that when the bus pulled up in front of the theater he thought to himself, "This doesn't look like an opera house." He told me that he had been to several operas in Italy and Europe and at this point he lifted his arms up and said, "This is an opera house." I told him to make sure and go up the staircase and check out the whole building.

I have sat in the very last row of the balcony, last seat against the wall, and heard perfectly. Also, when the place is empty and you are talking in the balcony, you can be heard throughout and down to the stage.

**Gistok** · October-20-11, 12:28 PM

Thanks for the nice anecdote DorothyD!

Yes from the outside it does not look like an Opera House [[especially the Madison side). From the Broadway side, the cream colored terra cotta Corinthian columns give you just a hint of an opera house. But once you go thru the Broadway [[Ford) entrance lobby, your are no longer a disbeliever... the magnificent stained glass vaulted ceiling, "marble" columns and classic details prepares you for Detroit's grandest theatre foyer in Detroit beyond. The mezzanine bridge over the 3 story vaulted Grand Foyer was a feature that C. Howard Crane used on other theatres he designed... especially when they were built on a difficult site, like the Capitol Theatre was in 1922.

The 6 story auditorium houses the secret to the wonderful acoustics of the space... the magnificent geometric sounding board over the procenium arch above the stage.

Because the theatre is so very wide, few good images of the stage area are known online. The best one I have [[a 1998 MOT owned image from their then spring opera guide) shows the procenium and sounding board above it, but does not show the massive organ grilles on either side of the stage. One would need a wide lense camera I would suppose...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/istokg/...57626093396465

It is this beautiful sounding board [[patterned after a ceiling in Italy's Villa Modema) that gives the DOH its' wonderful acoustics, by throwing the sound to the farthest reaches of the auditorium.

**beachboy** · October-21-11, 10:37 PM

Originally Posted by Gistok

The 6 story auditorium houses the secret to the wonderful acoustics of the space... the magnificent geometric sounding board over the pro[s]cenium arch above the stage.

Thank you, Gistok, for your wonderful narrative and commentary, pictures, etc., about the DOH!! I remember it as the Capitol Theater, long ago...

BTW, do you know what is in the organ chambers now, if anything?

**Gistok** · October-22-11, 04:14 PM

Thanks for the kind words Beachboy!

Funny you should mention the organ... the original organ was a Hilgreen-Lane organ that was installed for the opening of the Capitol Theatre on January 12, 1922. The organ grilles as we know them today were not in the theatre back in 1922. Back then there were drapes covering the organ openings. The organ was insufficient for such a large theatre, and was replaced in 1925.

When the State Theatre opened in 1925, the theatre owner, impressario John Kunsky, bought a Publix 1 Wurlitzer organ, and bought an identical model to replace the organ at his Capitol Theatre. At the same time the organ was installed, the drapery was replaced with the mesh organ grilles that are still there today. Ironically this is a reversal of the usual process [[many theatres later had their organ grilles replace with drapery).

From what 56packman said, the organ at the Capitol, while not the largest in the city, nevertheless had the best sound of any organ... likely due to the combination of having the largest organ grilles in Detroit, as well as due to the wonderful acoustics of the house.

The organ of the Capitol was sold off many years ago, and today is in the Oakland Paramout Theatre, while its' twin, the State Theatre organ, ended up across the bay in the San Francisco Castro Theatre.

Beachboy... you remember the theatre when it was the "Capitol"? That was likely the "Broadway Capitol" Theatre. When the theatre opened in 1922... it was the Capitol until 1929, when Paramount Corp. purchased it and renamed it the Paramount. This was shortlived, since the theatre closed in 1933. In 1934 it reopened as the Broadway Capitol, which it remained until 1960. That year it was rechristened the Grand Circus Theatre, and the original seating [[3,384 seats) was reconfigured to 3,367 seats. It remained the Grand Circus Theatre until it closed in 1985, when it was abandoned. Soon thereafter the theatre sustained heavy paster damage from lack of heating and burst water pipes in the walls and ceiling. There was also a piano floating in the water filled orchestra pit.

I saw the interior of the theatre circa 1991, and was appalled to see that one had no idea what color the interior was... since it was so damaged, all surfaces were shades of gray. When MOT bought the theatre in 1989, MOT patrons thought MOT General Director Dr. David DiChiera mad for such a purchase.

Well as we see today... [[after 90% of the plasterwork was replaced) Dr. DiChiera was a man with a vision... and Detroit is much the better for it.

**Gistok** · October-22-11, 04:39 PM

I just saw this clip about this Thursday's [[Oct. 27) IL VOLO Concert at the Detroit Opera House. TIckets are a VERY REASONABLE $20-$40. Since there's not a bad sounding spot in the auditorium, even the $20 tickets are good seats! [[$20 is not much more than movie tickets!)
http://don411.com/don411/blogs/entry...it-Opera-House

This concert is actually 2 concerts in 1, so even added value... The IL VOLO album concert DVD taping, and also an additional Christmas concert taping, where they sing Christmas songs in 5 languages... English, Italian, Spanish, French and German.

Most people who hear IL VOLO for the first time are stunned by their voices. I came across this German TV performance of IL VOLO on the Spanish Island of Mallorca...where 10,000 Germans watched on. This video clip shows at the beginning USA actor Kevin James and model Heidi Klum... who aren't paying attention at first when the guys sing "a cappella" [[without accompanyment)... and then look stunned... like "deer in the headlights"... priceless...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWH-yEDGQhk

**Gistok** · October-22-11, 07:38 PM

I just came across this stunning high resolution view of the Detroit Opera House, taken from the back of the balcony... looking down towards the stage, procenium, organ grilles, sounding board and ceiling dome....
http://www.doharchives.org/pictures/...nd_ceiling.htm

**beachboy** · October-23-11, 01:41 AM

Originally Posted by Gistok

Thanks for the kind words Beachboy!

You're more than welcome!! Thank you a million times for sharing all the great pix, information, etc. You are a living encyclopedia!!

Funny you should mention the organ... the original organ was a Hilgreen-Lane ...The organ grilles as we know them today were not in the theatre back in 1922. Back then there were drapes covering the organ openings. [in 1925], the drapery was replaced with the mesh organ grilles that are still there... a reversal of the usual process.

Yes!! Some had both grilles and drapes - the San Francisco Fox comes to mind... one of George Wright's better efforts was to partially remove those drapes, which dampened tonal egress - resulting in a muffled sound.

The organ of the Capitol was sold off many years ago, and today is in the Oakland Paramout Theatre, while its' twin, the State Theatre organ, ended up across the bay in the San Francisco Castro Theatre.

And what beautiful venues these are ... been to both many times ... Thank you for reminding us of this!! For DYers, here's a pic of the Oakland Paramount - a spectacular Art Deco showplace [[note the organ grille at center of image, to the right of the stage):

and here's a snap of the Castro with organ console, and left-hand grille:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vagabon...ct/5374347179/

Beachboy... you remember the theatre when it was the "Capitol"? That was likely the "Broadway Capitol" Theatre... remained until 1960. That year it was rechristened the Grand Circus Theatre ... remained [...] until it closed in 1985.

Yes, you are correct. I remember it with both Broadway Capitol and Grand Circus. Thank you for the clarification/correction.

An unrelated question: What Detroit theater[[s) had burlesque in the late 1950s? [[Old fart Beachboy can't remember...) Uncle Charlie snuck me in to whatever-name-it-was, when I was about 6 or 7... kid from the country thought the "girls" were gorgeous ... lucky I saw tits before, so pretended to be jaded ... ha!

**Gistok** · October-24-11, 01:43 AM

Beachboy... I can only think of 2 burlesque showplaces... and even then I'm not sure if it was burlesque, or just X rated shows...

Those would be the National Theatre on Monroe 1 block from Woodward, and 2) the Sassy Cat on lower Woodward in Midtown.

**beachboy** · October-24-11, 05:43 PM

Originally Posted by Gistok

Beachboy... I can only think of 2 burlesque showplaces... and even then I'm not sure if it was burlesque, or just X rated shows... National Theatre on Monroe 1 block from Woodward, and the Sassy Cat on lower Woodward in Midtown.

Hmmm ... maybe the National Theatre ... but IIRC it was close to Grand Circus Park ... seemed to be on the left side of the street as you walked to Hudson's ... IIRC the building had a big semicircular arch-like structure in front ... faded memories <sigh> ...

**Gistok** · October-26-11, 05:30 PM

Wow.... just got a pair of tickets from Interscope/Geffen/A&M for the 10/27 IL VOLO concert DVD filming at the Detroit Opera House... with a meeting of the group. They wanted to say "thank you" for being an ambassador!

Seems like even some people in Hollywood read DYES!

**lgc22** · October-26-11, 10:29 PM

Gistok- That's awesome they gave you meet & greet tickets! How did you know back in August that they were going to film a concert DVD at the Detroit Opera House? And I wonder why they didn't announce it sooner? I've been a fan since American Idol and it's very exciting that they're doing this in Detroit of all places!

**kathy2trips** · October-27-11, 12:24 AM

My Italian mama is very happy. And today I'm her favorite person for giving her the news. Thanks, Gistok.

**Gistok** · October-27-11, 01:08 AM

Well without naming names, I was talking with a manager at the DOH back during the Theatre Tours in August. And I mentioned that I heard that Detroit WTVS was the sponsor for IL VOLO for their 2012 March pledge drive.

I also heard that IL VOLO wanted to do their concert DVD at the Roman Coliseum, but that would have been a difficult venue...with constant tourism and lack of any seating.

I kiddingly mentioned to the manager that it's too bad that they don't do a Detroit Opera House concert for the groups first concert DVD. Their first concert tour ever was over the last 6 weeks in USA and Toronto/Montreal, with the Detroit Fox concert on the 16th of Oct. The guy looked at me with a shocked expression, and mentioned that just such a possibility was in the works... but to keep it to myself.

Fast forward to the 16th of October, IL VOLO performed at the Detroit Fox, the day it was announced via flyers to the attendees at the show at the Fox.... that WTVS PBS sponsored IL VOLO would do their self titled [[IL VOLO) DVD Concert video at the Detroit Opera House, and it would be sold during the PBS pledge drive in March 2012... and [[unless they make another one) to the general public later.

Of course all of this may depend on a 5 letter word.... G R A M M Y

They're already nominated for 2 in the Latin genre [[including best new pop artist), with likely more to come later since their USA album has songs in 3 languages [[they sing in 6). They did a European, North American and Spanish variation of their first album, so a USA Grammy nomination is not unlikely.

The DOH show will actually be 2 concerts they're taping back to back. The first will be their self titled DVD concert. The 2nd concert will be a PBS TV special [[yet to be announced) as a Christmas concert. They'll be singing in many languages [[they had to learn German to sing "Stille Nacht" their 6th language).

The Detroit Opera House concert will be aired in the Detroit PBS viewing area on December 7 at 8PM. That would be metro Detroit, and 1,000 cities in Canada that carry Detroit PBS on their national cable system. The concert will then be aired again, for the first time nationally, during the March 3, 2012 PBS pledge drive, with the stars... Gianluca, Piero and Ignazio doing their local pledge drive schmoozing for PBS.

**lgc22** · October-27-11, 12:41 PM

Thanks for the info! I was at the Fox when they announced the PBS concert at the end of the intermission and I plan on attending it tonight. I think they're still gaining popularity in the U.S. but they have youth, looks, and charm on their side, and of course, the VOICES to go far. It will be interesting to see where their careers will take them!