Written by theater director Brian Leahy Doyle and profusely illustrated by photographer Mark Fay, Encore is a reminder of a time when an opulent performing arts center was considered a greater community asset than a sports arena. By far, the Pabst was the most elaborate opera house ever built in Wisconsin, befitting its location in a city once called the “German Athens.” The architect, Otto Strack, had previously designed the Pabst Brewery and drew from the Teutonic-Italian Renaissance style that signified monumentality in German-speaking Europe during the 19th century. No expense was spared to clad the foyer in gold Siena marble and light the auditorium with a two-ton Austrian crystal chandelier. Fortunately, the Pabst escaped the officially sanctioned vandalism of the 1960s, when many landmarks were lost to “urban renewal” and “progress.”
Wisconsin’s second best known theater of its kind, Oshkosh’s Grand Opera House (1883), has also been lovingly restored. It was the dream of the city’s prosperous lumber barons and the design of architect William Waters, who favored an eclectic Victorian blend of Baroque, Gothic and Classical. The Grand Opera became the setting for many traveling theater productions (not all of them opera) that came to town by train.
More modest structures appeared in smaller towns, like the Copeland Opera House in Shullsburg, which owed its existence to the mineral wealth of nearby zinc mines. Such smaller venues seldom if ever saw grand opera, but hosted a variety of popular entertainment and lectures and served as a focus of civic pride.
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