Silver anniversary memories
Rise of the Wortham Theater Center: How it all began
Jun 2, 2012 | 4:30 pm
![News_Shelby_Dance Asian America_Lauren Anderson_Ben Stevenson_Janie Parker_Nov. 2011](https://houston.culturemap.com/media-library/news-shelby-dance-asian-america-lauren-anderson-ben-stevenson-janie-parker-nov-2011.jpg?id=30658514&width=2000&height=1500&quality=85&coordinates=36%2C0%2C234%2C0)
Photo by Jia Li
In the 1980s, everyone agreed that Houston needs a new performing arts center. Even a recession couldn't stop the Wortham Center from rising in downtown Houston.
Houston Grand Opera has been showing free, live simulcasts of productions in Fish Plaza, outside the Wortham Center, since 1995, when it screened a production of La Cenerentola starring Cecilia Bartoli (shown in this photo). In 2005, it showed a live simulcast of the Houston Grand Opera's star-studded 50th-anniversary gala headlined by Renée Fleming, Frederica von Stade and Bryn Terfel.