Ford's Grand Opera House was a major music venue in Baltimore, Maryland, located between Lexington and Marion Steets, just east of Eutaw Street. It was founded by theatre manager John T. Ford (also the owner of Ford's Theatre) and designed by architect James J. Gifford. The opera house opened to the public on October 2, 1871 with a show that included readings from Shakespeare's As You Like It as well as vocal and orchestral performances.
The opera house was later the site of Horace Greely's nomination as the Liberal Republican Party candidate for the 1872 U.S. presidential election.
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“The opera house sparkled with tiers
And tiers of eyes, like mine enlarged by belladonna,”
—James Merrill (b. 1926)
“Let us put an end to self-inflicted wounds. Let us remember that our national unity is a most priceless asset. Let us deny our adversaries the satisfaction of using Vietnam to pit Americans against Americans.”
—Gerald R. Ford (b. 1913)
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“If music in general is an imitation of history, opera in particular is an imitation of human willfulness; it is rooted in the fact that we not only have feelings but insist upon having them at whatever cost to ourselves.... The quality common to all the great operatic roles, e.g., Don Giovanni, Norma, Lucia, Tristan, Isolde, Brünnhilde, is that each of them is a passionate and willful state of being. In real life they would all be bores, even Don Giovanni.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)
“For splendor, there must somewhere be rigid economy. That the head of the house may go brave, the members must be plainly clad, and the town must save that the State may spend.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)