New Orleans, always known for a vibrant music scene, was the first to usher in the dramatic art form of opera to an appreciative young nation. One reader’s question: Was New Orleans the first American ...

The famous Paris opera house known as the Opera Garnier is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. Emperor Napoleon III commissioned the building in the 1850s but would never see its completion.

This image, originally published in 1872 in Appleton’s Journal, shows New Orleans’ old French Opera House as it would have been seen by someone approaching from Bourbon Street. Built in 1859, it stood ...