Monday, August 11, 2008
MANILA GRAND OPERA HOTEL
According to a Philippine Daily Inquirer article, the busy intersection of Rizal Avenue and Doroteo Jose Street is the site where the Manila Grand Opera House once stood and that it is now being developed into a luxury hotel and casino complex. It will be named the Manila Grand Opera Hotel.
However, that particular lot on Rizal Avenue and Doroteo Jose was not where the Manila Grand Opera House was, but rather Galaxy Theater, and behind it was the Mapua Institute of Technology's college and high school campus complex. Except for the MIT facade and the columns that support it, everything has been demolished. The lot is now a huge parking lot and bus terminal (above photo).
From what I remember, Manila Grand Opera House was located north of Doroteo Jose, right next door to Ang Tibay Shoe Store.
My memory should serve me right since I went to school at MIT for four years, as well as have bought many shoes at Ang Tibay Shoe Store while growing up. Moreover, from our house in Misericordia and Batangas Street, the jeepney I took to school would first pass by the Opera House and then on to Doroteo Jose where I would get off.
Nevertheless, erecting a luxury hotel in this area may inspire a full blown revitalization of the entire neighborhood. Rizal Avenue was, after all, Manila's premier entertainment and shopping district.
Furthermore, according to the PDI article written by Tina Santos, the management of this luxury hotel and casino complex intends to maintain its historic ambiance as a venue of arts and culture shows, providing visitors and its guests a glimpse of its colorful past.
There will be posters of different plays staged at the MGOH, as well as a section of the lobby to be designated to showcase photographs, paintings, artifacts, memorabilia and news clippings about the events that MGOH had hosted and personalities who performed there.
The article went on to say:
Manila Grand Opera House was the venue in the 1900s for performances by both local and foreign stars. And that in her book "Theater in Manila 1846-1946," Cristina Lanonico-Buenaventura said it was the place for visiting opera companies, Rizal Day celebrations and assemblies of national significance, including the inauguration of the first Philippine Assembly on Oct. 16, 1907, by United States Secretary of War William Howard Taft.
In the 1890s, the venue, which was then made of a circular wooden structure with a nipa roof, was called H.T. Hashim's National Cycle Track before its
name was changed to Teatro Nacional where the Russian Circus and some American theater companies performed.
Several years later, in 1902, the teatro became MGOH after it was transformed into an opera house by Italian impresario Balzofiore in time for visiting Italian opera company. Seats were divided into three classifications: Palco proscenio for the dignitaries, butaca or orchestra for most theatergoers, and gallery, the least expensive section.
However, in 1942, after about two decades of hosting opera and zarzuela productions, a new owner, Toribio Teodoro, the owner of Ang Tibay Shoes and known as the "shoe king of the Philippines, acquired the property. He lived there when the Japanese seized his house and shoe factory during World War II.
A series of unfortunate events then happened one after the other: The structure was badly damaged by flood the following year and burned down a
few months later.
But right after the war, reconstruction of the building began. Equipped with the latest technology, the structure was intended to be a first-class cinema
for cultural shows. Eventually, MGOH was dubbed as "The Theater with a History." It provided daily entertainment for the masses. For 85 centavos, people got to watch a stage show and a movie.
Its main fare were stage shows and movies with an occasional concert, opera and plays by stage and movie director (and later, National Artist) Lamberto
Avellana and Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero, among others.
It was said to be the "ultimate" place for singers, dancers and stage players to perform and it was where famous icons of vaudeville and the
zarzuela, including Atang de la Rama, Jovita Fuentes and Katy de la Cruz, reached the peak of stardom.
The MGOH also provided then future screen idols Rogelio de la Rosa and Leopoldo Salcedo and even comedians like Dolphy and Panchito, Bayani
Casimiro, Pugo and Tugo, Tugak and Pugak, Dely Atay-atayan and Chichay, among others, the boost they needed in their careers.
The opera house, which by the '60s had been transformed into a movie theater, was bought by former Ambassador to Laos Antonio Cabangon Chua from
the heirs of Teodoro.
"It was only this year that plans for building the hotel were conceptualized, " Tan said, adding that the hotel aims to serve both as a reminder of the site's historic past as well as a showcase of the latest amenities of a first-class hotel.
But where o where exactly are they building it?* * *
ADDENDUM
ADDENDUM
I had decided to go to Rizal Avenue this afternoon to find out for myself the exact site on which the old Manila Grand Opera House used to stand, as well as where the luxury hotel is being built.
I asked the people at the international flag store located on Rizal Avenue between Doroteo Jose and Lope de Vega. Supposedly, according to its huge sign, this store has been doing business in the same exact location for three generations.
The manager told me that Manila Grand Opera House used to be located where Music Avenue (formerly Chicks O'Clock) now stands; whereas, the site where Ang Tibay Shoe Store used to be is now occupied by the LRT Doroteo Jose Station.
As for the hotel, it is being built on Doroteo Jose, about 70 meters from Rizal Avenue, where a row of stores used to be -- school supplies, books, novelty shops, eateries, and etc. -- across the street from where the old MIT high school building once stood.
So, technically speaking, the hotel is being built in the vicinity of the site of the Manila Grand Opera House.
I had taken a video of the area:
I asked the people at the international flag store located on Rizal Avenue between Doroteo Jose and Lope de Vega. Supposedly, according to its huge sign, this store has been doing business in the same exact location for three generations.
The manager told me that Manila Grand Opera House used to be located where Music Avenue (formerly Chicks O'Clock) now stands; whereas, the site where Ang Tibay Shoe Store used to be is now occupied by the LRT Doroteo Jose Station.
As for the hotel, it is being built on Doroteo Jose, about 70 meters from Rizal Avenue, where a row of stores used to be -- school supplies, books, novelty shops, eateries, and etc. -- across the street from where the old MIT high school building once stood.
So, technically speaking, the hotel is being built in the vicinity of the site of the Manila Grand Opera House.
I had taken a video of the area:
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RELATED LINKS:
Manila's Movie Theaters
Quiapo and the Golden Age of Filipino Movies
Where Avenue Theater Once Stood
Avenida Rizal
Capitol Theater
Clover and Opera House - Video 48
Cinema Treasures
Ang Tibay Shoes
Manila's Movie Theaters
Quiapo and the Golden Age of Filipino Movies
Where Avenue Theater Once Stood
Avenida Rizal
Capitol Theater
Clover and Opera House - Video 48
Cinema Treasures
Ang Tibay Shoes
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Please note:
I very much appreciate my articles and photos appearing on fellow bloggers' sites, popular broadsheets, and local broadcast news segments, but I would appreciate even more a request for permission first.
Thank you!
I very much appreciate my articles and photos appearing on fellow bloggers' sites, popular broadsheets, and local broadcast news segments, but I would appreciate even more a request for permission first.
Thank you!
Labels: Growing up memoirs, Manila Grand Opera House, Manila history, Manila movie theater
posted by Señor Enrique at 11:59 AM
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