Travels of a Scenic Artist and Scholar. Denver’s Tabor Grand Opera House and Scenic Artists Robert Hopkins, 1881.

Copyright © 2020 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett

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One cannot explore the history of Leadville’s Tabor Opera House without taking into consideration Horace Tabor’s second theater, the Tabor Grand Opera House in Denver. It provides additional context for Tabor’s first theatre.

Leadville’s Tabor Opera House opened in November of 1879. By March 1880, Tabor announced that he had purchased land in Denver at Sixteenth and Curtis Street with plans for another opera house. As with many theater owners and architects of the time, they visited other opera houses for inspiration. Known as the Tabor Grand Opera House, to differentiate from the Tabor Opera House in Leadville, the building was designed by Edbrooke and F. P. Burnham of Chicago, with a seating capacity of 1,500. Construction for his second opera house construction began by the summer. Estimates for the new opera house were projected at 750,000 to 850,000, today’s equivalent of over $18,000,000. The theater opened on August 1, 1881, with Emma Abbott and her Grand English Opera Company. Abbott was paid a staggering $20,000, plus railway fares, for a two-week engagement (Topeka Daily Capital, 3 Aug 1881, page 7).

Of the new theater, the “Times-Picayune” reported, “The stage is constructed and fitted up on a scale that would cause envy in many Eastern theatres. The decorations in the body of the theatre itself are of the most beautiful description, and one can see at a glance that expense was not considered in the least” (New Orleans, 6 Dec. 1881, page 9).

I first learned delved into the history Tabor Grand Opera House after reading an article by Thomas G. Moses (1856-1934) for the Palette & Chisel Club newsletter.  In the 1920s, he wrote a series called “Tom’s Travels.” In 1884, Moses was on a sketching trip with three other scenic artists, traveling from Chicago to Breckenridge, Colorado. Their sketching trip was to gather source material for future stage settings and hone their artistic skills.  None of the young scenic artists had ever seen mountains before this trip.

Moses mentioned their stopping by the Tabor Theatre in Denver, Colorado, (Tabor Grand Opera) to see the drop curtain produced by his friend and fellow scenic artist, Robert Hopkins. Of his trip to Denver, Moses wrote: “We all fell in love with the city.  It is beautifully situated, rather hilly but well laid out; fine buildings, very ornate homes, built by men who had more money than taste.  We all attended the theatre, the famous Tabor Grand, and we found it all we had expected it would be, nicely decorated and fine woodwork.  The Drop Curtain was very good: an old ruin with some poetical feeling that pleased everyone.  It was painted by an old friend of mine, Mr. Robert Hopkins, of Detroit, Michigan.  This is a favorite subject of his, he having done a similar one in Detroit” (The palette & Chisel, Vol. 1, No. 3, March 1928). 

While looking for additional information about the Tabor Grand Opera, I discovered a photograph of Hawkins’ drop curtain; it is part of the Denver Public Library’s online collection. Now what is interesting to consider about the Tabor Grand Opera is that Hawkins painted the drop curtain, while Henry E. Burcky is credited with painting stock scenery collection.

At this time, it was not unusual for the drop curtain and stock scenery to be separate contracts. In many instances, the front curtain was considered a project in itself, taking much longer than most other scenery delivered to a theater. Many nineteenth century articles solely focused on those artists who specialized in drop curtains. In 1894, the “Philadelphia Inquirer” included the illustrated article – “Well-Known Drop Curtains in Philadelphia Theatre”  (16 Dec, 1894, page 45). The article reported, “The drop curtain is the most expensive piece of furniture in any playhouse. Managers are more solicitous about the care of a handsome curtain that almost any other appointment in their theatres. They are usually painted by artists of wide fame in a particular branch of art which they represent, whose charges for the work range from $1,000 to $3,000.” That amount is today’s equivalent of $29,000 to $89,000 for the front curtain. This also puts the $1,000 Royal Gorge backdrop purchased for the 1879 Tabor Opera House in perspective.

So consider the 1879 backdrop at the Tabor Opera House in Leadville, and the 1881 drop curtain painted by Robert Hopkins for the Tabor Grand Opera; these were incredibly expensive items for each theater, likely the most expensive appointment in the theater. We known that Tabor did not spare any expense and the painted scenes beyond the curtain line would have been no exception.  Painted scenes on the stage transported audience members to other worlds, with the painted front curtain (drop curtain) being the portal. In most cases, the front curtain established set the tone of the painted décor of the space, being the most unifying aspects of all other painted elements. Restoring any theater is incomplete without this original element, and I sometime wonder if todays’ architects are unaware of this aspect.

To be continued…