Grand Opera House (ETW building)
| Grand Opera House | |
|---|---|
| Category: | Culture |
| Level: | 2 |
| Turns to build: | 4 |
| Building cost: | 1500 |
| |
| Requires | |
 Opera House | |
| Enables | |
 Great Museum | |
This impressive setting for musical performances allows the audience to delight in novel entertainments, and admire the good taste of the house’s patron.
Little expense is spared on a grand opera house, particularly in the “front of house” areas where the audience are to be found. A grand opera house is a magnificent structure, the equal of any palace in terms of luxurious appointments and detailing to overawe the visitors. The staged works can be equally elaborate, featuring enormous casts and intricate settings. This is conspicuous consumption raised to a high art, even before the music starts!
Many rulers in the 18th Century acted as a patron of the arts, and opera in particular. Apart from being fabulously and famously expensive (therefore demonstrating the patron’s wealth), the musical form was also growing in popularity and quality. The staging and music of opera advanced tremendously during the period, with works from composers of genius such as Mozart, Handel and Scarlatti. Emperor Joseph II of Austria, the “music king”, was particularly fortunate that his love of the art coincided with a flowering of musical talent in Europe. He used the arts as a subtle tool of nationalism, promoting a Germanic culture within Austria.
This building can only be built in the faction capital.