Napa Valley Opera House

Event Location

1030 Main St. Napa
Napa, CA 94559

Map of Napa Valley Opera House, 1030 Main St. Napa, Napa

The Napa Valley Opera House was built in 1879 as one of the first 'respectable' venues west of the Mississippi River. For the latter half of the 19th century, the Napa Valley Opera House was the cultural center for the region, until the decline of vaudeville and other pressures forced it to go dark in 1914.

The house was nearly destroyed until a few Napa Valley Opera House devotees spared it from the wrecking ball in the early 1970s.

For the last 15 years, the NVOH has been slowly restoring itself for a new future through a series of fundraising challenges, construction activities and visionary plans. The house came back to life in June 2002 with the opening of the Cafe Theatre; its historic main hall reopened in late summer, 2003, in all of its original splendor.

A brief chronology of the NVOHï¿½s historical high notes:

2001 - Design of the Napa Valley Opera House is completed and the construction work continues. Structural steel is in place as is the new roof. A time capsule is buried beneath the new foundation. The Opera House gears up to open in 2002 and begins to build the infrastructure to support a fully operational theatre. An audience survey, of potential patrons in Napa County, the other nine counties of the San Francisco Bay Area, and recent tourists to Napa County from major US cities, reinforces the overwhelming support and need for a performing arts center of this type in Napa County. Repertoire planning for the opening season begins.

2002 - In June, 2002, the Napa Valley Opera House opens again with an unforgettable performance by jazz diva Dianne Reeves. The first full season is launched, with offerings in jazz, classical music, family programming, comedy and other events in the intimate Cafe Theatre.

2003 - The Napa Valley Opera House re-opened its doors last August, after 90 years in the dark. With the completion of the Margrit Biever Mondavi Theatre restoration, the dream finally came true. Today, the Napa Valley Opera House once again is the pride of the Napa Valley. Its restoration is the fruit of decades of effort, tens of thousands of hours of volunteer work and genuine tenacity in the face of overwhelming odds.

2004 - After a national search, Evy Warshawski was named Executive Director in 2004, and the NVOH now boasts a year-round calendar of events plus a staff of ten full-time professionals overseeing marketing, development, box office, finance and production.