Opera in Atlanta

Laurent deGive struggled with presenting touring companies because of the inflated cost of train travel through the incompletely reconstructed South.

Later renamed Loew's Grand Theatre, it subsequently became famous for the 1939 premiere of the movie, Gone with the Wind.

The summer Met tours became an annual week-long event that drew many of Dixie's wealthiest citizens and even more socialites.

It is reported that during Atlanta's golden age of opera, the majority of the social elite would attend the first act and then leave at intermission for drinks and an evening of party-going.

Eager young students would often crowd outside the theater in hopes of gaining partially used tickets and catch the remainder of the show.

There was even an ill-fated push to spark the interest of legendary chorister and conductor Robert Shaw to head a regional company.