Knoxville Opera

After its construction in 1928 as a grand movie palace in the Spanish-Moorish style, the Tennessee Theatre gradually fell into disrepair, its ceiling cracking and its colors fading. A $23.5 million renovation completed in 2005 restored the venue to its Roaring Twenties glory, starting with a complete repainting that restored the rich reds and golds of the proscenium, the baby blue of the ceiling, and the original '20s graffiti in the alley that reads, “Talkies are a fad.” Grand chandeliers cast glittering light across the lobby and the meticulously restored, burgundy velvet seating cradles showgoers in downy comfort. Filling the space with a wall of pipe-produced sound, the 17-rank Mighty Wurlitzer pipe organ that acts as the theater’s centerpiece stands at the ready, recently disassembled, refurbished, and restored it to its wall-shaking prime.