Saratoga Performing Arts Center
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The Saratoga Performing Arts Center is an Amphitheater in Saratoga Springs, New York. In early February 1961, Albany newspaperman Duane La Fleche noted a wire service report about a group hoping to entice the New York Philharmonic to make Stowe, Vermont its summer residence. La Fleche proposed that the group stay in New York State and perform in Saratoga Springs. Local civic, cultural, and legislative leaders, who had previously considered a Saratoga Arts Center an interesting possibility, began to design the facility. Within a week, they held their first meeting; within a month they were focusing on Saratoga Spa State Park as the site, had won the support of State Conservation Commissioner Harold Wilm, and begun discussions with both the New York Philharmonic and New York City Ballet.
By summer 1963, generous contributions from Rockefeller Brothers Fund and New York State supplemented community support to create Saratoga Performing Arts Center. In June 1964, Governor Rockefeller mounted a bulldozer to break the first yard of ground. More than 410 workdays followed: 300 workers clocked 136,000 hours to complete the 5,100-seat, 10-story amphitheatre (original layout of the venue did not include a festival lawn). On July 9, 1966, NYCB conductor Robert Irving raised his baton, and Balanchine's A Midsummer Night's Dream enchanted the opening night audience.
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