“A Triumph for Matcham’s Sound Theatre Design”: The Grand Opera House and the Staging of Opera in Belfast, 1945-81

Belfast’s Grand Opera House (GOH) opened in 1895 and played a key role in the cultural life of the city throughout the twentieth century and up to the present day. The theatre provides a venue that can host visiting opera, ballet and drama companies, as well as various local ventures such as the Grand Opera Society of Northern Ireland (GOSNI) and Ulster Operatic’s light-opera productions.¹

Victorian architect Frank Matcham (1854-1920), who was responsible for some 150 theatres in the United Kingdom, designed the GOH, which today is rightly regarded as one of his finest theatres (Walker x. See Fig. 1). Just two of Matcham’s theatres were built in Ireland however: the GOH in Belfast and Dublin’s Theatre Royal, which closed its doors in 1934 and was demolished soon afterwards (Ryan 36). In fact, several of Matcham’s theatres no longer stand; as entertainment trends swayed toward the cinema screen during the 1950s and 1960s these ornate buildings no longer seemed to serve much of a purpose as far as the general public were concerned. The GOH survived only because it was taken over by Rank-Odeon in 1960 and converted into a cinema, which it remained until the building was closed in 1972.

This article is concerned with the staging of grand opera at this theatre – and other venues in Belfast – between 1945 and 1981, examining the threats posed to the GOH as a live venue by the private ownership of the Rank-Odeon cinema chain and the impact of the Troubles on Belfast’s city centre. With the GOH remaining closed during the 1970s, the province’s locally based opera company – the Northern Ireland Opera Trust (NIOT) – continued to present its annual season, in a number of different venues such as the Grove Theatre in North Belfast and the ABC Cinema in the centre of the city. The difficulty in staging opera at this time will be highlighted however, as the on-going violence caused widespread disruption, and it was not until the GOH was renovated and reopened in 1980 that Belfast maintained a permanent theatre suitable for the staging of opera once again.

Fig. 1.

The exterior of Belfast’s Grand Opera House

Opera in Belfast: 1945-60

For the majority of the twentieth century, the GOH was used as a venue housing local theatre productions, opera and the seasonal Christmas pantomime, as well as several distinguished touring companies. Frank Benson’s Shakespearean company were visitors annually from when the theatre first opened until 1931, and there were also visits from Dublin’s Abbey Theatre (Gallagher 18-19). During the 1920s and 1930s the Carl Rosa Opera Company was a regular visitor, as was the D’Oyly Carte Company, an indication that the GOH was capable of staging large productions, in fact more so than any other theatre in Belfast.

Restrictions on travel between Britain and Ireland during the Second World War meant that no British opera companies were able to cross the Irish Sea and perform in Belfast during this period. With the end of hostilities in May 1945 however, the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts in Northern Ireland (CEMA NI)² immediately sought to redress this and arranged for the Sadler’s Wells Opera Company to put on a three-week run in the GOH in August of that year (for a list opera performances in Belfast throughout the period, see Appendix 1). This was the Sadler’s Wells first visit to Ireland, and the success of the venture can be measured by its popularity with audiences: CEMA NI recorded that the seventeen evening performances and six matinees were given “to crowded and enthusiastic audiences in the GOH” (CEMA-AR-45-46 9), while one newspaper review noted the “large audiences, and the enthusiasm still more keen” (Belfast Telegraph 27 July 1945). Adjacent to the GOH stood the Royal Hippodrome Theatre, built in 1907 as a variety theatre...