The Amargosa Opera House
by Joe Schofield
Title
The Amargosa Opera House
Artist
Joe Schofield
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
The Amargosa Opera House. Rod Stewart once told us: "Every picture tells a story, don't it?" As such, you simply cannot make this place up. Here's a brief description:
Located in a remote stretch of desert, near the Nevada/California state line, the Amargosa Opera House, once an abandoned community center, offered weekly performances of classical ballet, theater, and pantomine. All the performances were written and executed by Marta Becket, a classically trained ballerina from New York, who came to this place to have a flat tire repaired in 1968, and essentially never left. Over the years she performed in the space, with or without an audience, and decorated the opera house with painted murals, portraying an audience of 16th century Spanish royalty, clerics, gypsies and revelers. Due to assorted health problems, her final performance was announced in 2012, but in 2013 she made a brief comeback in a program which involved no dancing. In 2014, portions of the Opera House were damaged by flooding, caused by heavy rain.
I stumbled across the place while exploring Death Valley many years ago.
Uploaded
October 14th, 2023
Embed
Share
Tags
Similar Subjects
Similar Images
Comments (23)
Rahdne Zola
What a fascinating story and individual! Love the interplay between the white, blue, and green! Great work, Joe!
Kay Brewer
Did you go to an opera? Sometimes the place where the opera is performed absolutely makes the performance! I think this would. l/f
Joe Schofield replied:
Kay, I can testify that the venue can make a difference, but not in this instance, though I’m sure Ms. Becket had the best intentions. My son beat me to La Scala, however.
Anthony Jones
Beautiful work! Thank you for submitting your artwork to the Southern California Artist Collective Group where the image is now featured on the home page. Feel free to post this in the Featured archive in the group discussion page section L/F
Recently Viewed
