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Design No. 324: Notes for James Levine's Mini Met, a Child's Opera Playhouse

atelier ying, nyc

 

Penciling in the basic structure and we're already running into problems. The inter--location of an intermission bar is behind the proscenium and below the stage, with sole access from the left grand tier boxes by secret staircase (which itself will be a piano nobile of a design homage for Verdi's Rigoletto).

 

The bar location serves a doubled purpose, to open space below the stage floor for a covered wireless speaker (I'll have to explain to my children the hidden orchestra at Bayreuth one day).

 

A Press Room, which controls lighting, the curtains is along stage right. The room holds a relic of the 196- Met, cufflinks from the original gold Met curtain, till last year easily available from

the Met Opera Shop.

 

This design amalgamates James Levine's long unfulfilled dream of a Mini Met, a 19th century Pollock Theater, his own childhood opera theater and the Met Opera.

 

An added fillip to this children's opera playhouse is a portrait camera function built into the proscenium for self-portraits conducting, something Levine would have been amused with seeing his conducting gestures decades later.

 

Design, concepts, text, photograph & drawing are copyright 2016 by David Lo

 

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Uploaded on August 20, 2016
Taken on August 20, 2016