Image Description from historic lecture booklet: "Their great opera house, the Colon, that cost 10,000,000 and occupies a whole square, is one of the most beautiful in the world. There is none in New York or Chicago, or any of our cities, to compare with it. It is of french design and built of stone, and the interior is finished in white marble, gold-bronze ornamentation's and rich red drapery and upholstery It is not quite as large as the Metropolitan, the two lower tiers of boxes are occupied by the families of the "Four Hundred", for their grand opera down there is just as much of a social function with them as it is with the smart set in our greatest city; and, as their season is in July and August--winter months with them--not a few of the singers that are heard at the Metropolitan later on are heard there in their season. Above the boxes are two balconies and a gallery where the gods congregate and howl for encores for all the world like our own. It appears that they are not very fond of Wagner and the German music, these Bonarenees, but are keen for the Italian and French; so, aside from the opera, competent French and Italian companies are brought over every year for long engagements at other theaters. Also there are French opera comique, Italian farce, and English musical comedy companies, French cafe' chantant, English music hall and our own vaudeville entertainers without end, and dramas, even Shakespearean occasionally., and the other classes of performances, following each other at the many theaters continually."
