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Written by Caren Beilin
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 With its sumptuous shocks of red velvet, seemingly endless tiers of
balconies, and a five thousand pound crystal chandelier fifty feet in
circumference, the Academy of Music, which celebrates its 150th
anniversary this year, is—to be succinct—extravagant. But all this
aside, the famed opera house has a history that’s incredibly rich.
Founded in 1857 and modeled on Milan’s La Scala, it is the oldest grand
opera house in the United States still in use as such. These days,
the Academy of Music houses much more than opera: Broadway shows, the
Pennsylvania Ballet, and, before its recent move to the Kimmel
Center, the Philadelphia Orchestra. The Academy of Music is
legendary—it is, after all, where many area natives saw our first
performance of
“The Nutcracker.”
Linda Scribner, head of fundraising for the Philadelphia Orchestra,
which owns the Academy of Music, remembers taking her young son to the
Academy in the 1970s and being overwhelmed by the building’s beauty.
“Everybody has a story about their first experiences,” she says.
“That’s why it endures. Philadelphians have wonderful memories, and so,
the Grand Old Lady continues to survive.”
It will continue to awe first-time visitors, in part, through
endowments of Leonore Annenberg, the latest of which is for $5.3
million to fund the restoration of the ballroom. The Academy is working
to raise $10 million to be allocated to a number of projects. Plans for
renovations are huge.
“This building continues to reinvent itself,” Scribner says. Future
upkeep projects will include repairs to the front steps, the ceiling’s
goldleafing, restoration of the chandelier and new curtains, among
others. The most notable change will be when the windows on the east
side of the ballroom—which were mirrored over during a previous bout of
renovations—are opened. “This will bring the inside of the ballroom to
the outside,” Scribner explains.
The Academy of Music has been home to more than the classical arts.
While musicians Maria Callas, Birgit Nilsson, Pavarotti, Mahler,
Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky have all graced its stage, so have Frank
Sinatra, George Gershwin and Duke Ellington. Legendary Russian
ballerina Anna Pavlova leapt across the stage in the 1910s, as did the
University of Pennsylvania’s and the Riverton Club of Princeton’s
football teams in the first indoor football game in 1889.
Now more than ever, the Philadelphia Orchestra is eager to maintain
this tradition of variety in order to preserve the Academy’s raison
d’être—that it be well-loved. Linda Scribner talks of “raising the
invisible curtain.”
“I think everybody involved in arts and culture is figuring out that
we’re in changing times and need to meet the needs of the next
generation,” she says. “That’s why the Anniversary Ball was a variety
show, with John Lithgow and Rod Stewart. We want to continue to create
ways to reach the next generation of concert-goers.” For information
about the Academy of Music’s upcoming season, visit www.academyofmusic.org.
Caren Beilin lives in Philadelphia, Pa.
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