Page:The Tourist's California by Wood, Ruth Kedzie.djvu/87

 THEATRES, FESTIVALS, SPORTS 63 First-class companies are booked now at the splendid new Cort Theatre and at the Columbia. The new Tivoli on Eddy Street near Market gives opera at low prices. The Alcazar and the Orpheum on O'Farrel Street, the Savoy on McAllister Street near Market, and the Empress and Pantages on Market Street are the leading stock and variety houses. Public-spirited patrons of music have subscribed $800,000 for an Opera House which will form a part of the city's new civic centre. Of its 5000 seats, 3000 will be sold at popular prices. The Opera House will also contain a municipal conser- vatory a-nd will become the educational heart of the city's musical life. A great Auditorium is also included in the group about the square before the new City Hall. The plaza is to be the scene in the future of the Christmas Eve open-air concerts at which world-renowned artists have sung. In former years the concourse has centred about the Lotta Fountain. Symphony concerts and recitals are held in the Kohler and Chase and Scottish Rite Halls. The once-famous Chinese theatre on Jackson Street is now no more, never having been rebuilt after the fire owing to lack of an endowment. In the Italian theatres effective plays and operas are sometimes given.