opera house · $$$ · since 2005
Ellie Caulkins Opera House
Opera Colorado and Colorado Ballet play inside the 1908 Municipal Auditorium shell.
The Ellie is a modern opera house dropped inside the 1908 Denver Municipal Auditorium, the hall that hosted the Democratic convention which nominated William Jennings Bryan. It was gutted and rebuilt as a horseshoe of roughly 2,200 seats and reopened in 2005, named for Ellie Caulkins. Opera Colorado and Colorado Ballet are the resident companies, with touring dance and concerts filling the gaps. Every seat has a small screen on the back of the one in front carrying translated libretto, which is the single detail that makes a first opera survivable.
Why go. A real opera house, with a translation screen on the seat in front of you.
Colorado Ballet's Nutcracker is gone by early November; opera nights are far easier to get into late.
A short walk from Ellie Caulkins Opera House
Temple Hoyne Buell Theatre
$$$Where the touring Broadway shows land, 2,800 seats under the glass galleria.
Downtown, a few blocks over · 1350 Curtis Street
Understudy
Free 700-square-foot art incubator tucked under the Convention Center on 14th.
Downtown, a few blocks over · 890 C 14th Street
TheaterDenver Performing Arts Complex
$$$Four blocks of theaters under one glass canopy, a five-minute walk from Larimer Square.
Downtown, a few blocks over · 1400 Curtis St
Garner Galleria Theatre
$$A 210-seat cabaret room with table service and long-running comedies.
Downtown, a few blocks over · 1400 Curtis Street
The Curtis Hotel
$$Pop-culture themed floors across the street from the Arts Complex, recently renovated.
Downtown, a few blocks over · 1405 Curtis Street
Boettcher Concert Hall
$$The Colorado Symphony's home, built in the round so nobody sits far back.
Downtown, a few blocks over · 1000 14th Street