On this Road: Eureka Street

from "On the Road:"
As for me, I was scheduled to be a guest at the opera that afternoon, escorting Babe on my arm...
The opera was Fidelio. "What gloom!" cried the baritone, rising out of the dungeon under a groaning stone. I cried for it. That's how I see life too...
"Well, Sal, how did you like the production for this year?" asked Denver D. Doll proudly in the street outside. He was connected with the opera association.
"What gloom, what gloom," I said. "It's absolutely great."

And this is the Central City Opera, in Central City, Colorado, where Jack Kerouac saw Fidelio on that summer night in 1947.