Bardavon 1869 Opera House, Opera house in downtown Poughkeepsie, United States.
The Bardavon 1869 Opera House is a brick performance venue in downtown Poughkeepsie, New York, topped by a decorative dome designed by architect J.A. Wood. It contains two stages of different sizes, allowing small and large events to take place at the same time.
The building opened in 1869 as the Collingwood Opera House and is one of the oldest continuously operating performance venues in the United States. Over the decades it moved between theater and cinema use before taking its current name and being listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Bardavon serves as a home for the Hudson Valley Philharmonic and regularly screens Metropolitan Opera broadcasts, drawing audiences from across the region. Theatergoers and music lovers share the same historic space, which gives the venue a sense of continuity in local life.
The box office is open Tuesday through Friday and the event calendar is updated regularly on the venue's website. Booking tickets in advance is a good idea, as popular shows tend to sell out quickly.
Eleanor Roosevelt appeared here in 1953, narrating Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf with a full orchestra on stage behind her. This performance is one of the most often recalled moments in the building's long story.
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