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HISTORY OF BIG SUR COAST

  A new dawn:              Locals had long called for a road along the coast to aid shipwreck victims and improve access to isolated communities.  Construction started in 1919, and 18 years, 32 tonnes of dynamite and 33 bridges later, the Big Sur stretch of California Highway One was complete.               The implausible route, with its myriad twists and turns and dramatic drop-offs, became an instant classic.  The author and painter Henry Miller fled to Big Sur in 1944 and stayed for nearly two decades.  Photographer Edward Weston and Beat Generation bard Jack Kerouac fell under its spell.  By the late 1960’s San Francisco’s counterculture revolution had swept down to Big Sur, and the likes of Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell performed on the cliff tops.              ...
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AMAZON THEATRE

 

Building the dream:


Amazon Theatre


                      Construction began in 1884 to a design by Italian architect Celestial Sacardim.  No expense was spared as the finest materials were shipped across the Atlantic from Europe,  then taken 900 miles (1450 km) inland up the Amazon.  White Carrara marble was brought from Italy for the columns, statues and stairs.  From Alsace came 36,000 yellow, green and blue tiles to crown the rooftop dome in the pattern of the Brazilian flag – a colourful nationalist statement visible for miles around.  Louis XV – style furniture was imported from Paris. 

                         To top it all, the Amazon Theatre was fitted with electricity long before this was common in Europe or America: this building was state of the art.  Murano glass from Venice was used in more than 30 of the almost 200 chandeliers that illuminate the interior. 

                     Outside, Portuguese flagstones were used for the footpath and the nearby streets were paved with rubber-and-sand slabs to mute the sound of passing carriages, so the audience’s listening pleasure would not be disturbed.  When all was finally ready, the inaugural opera, La Gioconda by Italian composer Amilcare Ponchielli, was staged on January 7, 1897.

Location: Largo de São Sebastião - Centro, Manaus - AM, 69067-080, Brazil

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