Napa Valley Opera House (Napa, CA) Concert Venue

The Napa Valley Opera House opened in 1880 with a production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore. Following damage from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, as well as a diminishing interest in vaudeville with the dawning of film, the theater closed in 1914.

While the Napa Valley Opera House was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, it was not until 1997 that Robert Mondavi and his wife Margrit issued a $2.2 challenge grant to boost the theater's reconstruction goal of $13.7 million for the project.

In 2002 the bottom floor of the building was converted to an intimate, 200-person venue and renamed the Café Theatre. Jazz singer Dianne Reeves was the first performer at the Napa Valley Opera House’s Café Theatre.

In 2003, Rita Moreno performed on opening night for the premiere of the upstairs venue, which features seating for 500. Moreno was followed by a performance of HMS Pinafore, the same show that opened the original venue 123 years before.