The Toronto Star recently wrote about Pensacola. The article has a great opening:
A night at an opera fundraiser wasn’t part of the plan, but a friend had tickets, so here we were, raising our glasses to the upcoming season. I’d expected beaches, yes, and sun (double yes) but opera? The raven-haired mezzo soprano on my right sets me straight. “This used to be a podunk place, but not now.â€
Podunk no more. Looking more like Buenos Aires than Miami, this Florida panhandle town attracts loyal opera lovers, true, but picnicking families flock to the town’s free outdoor concerts, hipsters old and young love Vinyl Music Hall headliners—Leon Russell, Doctor John, Los Lonely Boys. Ballet, symphony and opera happen at the Saenger Theatre, a gorgeously restored 1920s vaudeville house in the heart of old downtown.
Read more “Pensacola Soul.”