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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

 From decay to rebirth:


Amazon Theatre


                        The rubber boom was not to last. As production moved to plantations in Asia and Africa, the fortunes of Manaus warned.  With the invention of synthetic rubber, they vanished.  In 1907, a mere decade after that first operatic performance, the theatre saw its last.  And the lights went out not just on the theatre, but on the whole city as it could not afford to run its generators. 

                          Decay rapidly set in as the theatre fell prey to termites and the humid climate.  Renovation was attempted in 1929 and again in 1974, but it was 1988 before a successful project got underway.  Two years and $8 million later, opera finally returned to the stage there with a performance by Placido Domingo.

                           The Theatre’s repertoire has been widened to include jazz, as well as classical favourites.  The humidity plays havoc with instruments and the grand piano has to be treated with special oils to keep it in concert condition.  Yet the opera house and its orchestra attract some of Europe’s best musicians, and its annual Amazon Opera Festival draws visitors from all over the world.
Location: Largo de São Sebastião - Centro, Manaus - AM, 69067-080, Brazil

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