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Piper's second opera house in various stages of disrepair... it was used as a basketball court at one time! Victoria and I went to see R. Carlos Nakai play here a few years back... It was a very enjoyable Native American flute performance. His web page is here: www.rcarlosnakai.com/
Louis Moreau Gottschalk played at the original opera house I believe. Here is what he thought about Virginia City in 1865: "The town is ugly, built of wood on rough ground. The streets are steep and irregular. The cafés are numerous. The music store is a shoemaker's shop, two-thirds of which is filled with boots and the rest with drawers and loose sheets of music, which would seem to prove that the population walks more over the rugged soil of the town than on the road florid with art. It is not truly to speak a town, it has rather the appearance of one of those European fairs, which once a year attract for two months merchants and purchasers from the four points of the horizon. The dust blinds when it does not choke you, and vice versâ, and both at once. Shut up in the midst of steep mountains, the sight perceives as far as it can extend only the gray tints of the arid soil, or the sombre masses of the sage, the only vegetable that grows. It is meagre, sad, mean, and monotonous. I have never really known spleen save in Virginia City. It is the most inhospitable and the saddest town that I have ever visited. I have passed eleven days here, during which I have given three concerts. I have not received from the inhabitants one invitation, not one visit, nor any mark of distinction. I fortunately found here a family from New Orleans, whom the vicissitudes of fortune have temporarily banished here, and a young Louisianian, who, by their interest, sometimes contributed to dissipate the ennui of my isolation....
Alf Doten mentions him in his diary entry of June 6th: Evening I attended the
second one of Gottschalk's concerts . . . Miss Lucy Simmons sings with him. He appears to be the greatest pianist in the world. He certainly is the greatest I ever heard." This an excerpt from a book I wrote a few years back. Here is a photo of the cover: www.flickr.com/photos/owlsplace/801024084/in/set-72157600...
Back to the most beautiful opera house I've ever seen! October 2nd, 2012. With Horizon Perfekt and Tungsten
The Opéra Garnier is one of the Paris National Opera's two home venues in the city. It was built from 1861 to 1875 on a commission of Napoleon III, along with the Place de l'Opéra on which the building stands, at the intersection of Boulevard des Capucines and Avenue de l'Opéra. Inaugurated as "le Nouvel opéra de Paris" (the New Paris Opera), the venue became known as the "Palais Garnier" within the first decades of its existence, acknowleding the plans and designs of its architect Charles Garnier. The Paris National Opera now uses the Palais Garnier mainly for ballet. The Palais Garnier also houses the Bibliothèque-Musée de l'Opéra de Paris (Paris Opera Library-Museum), although the Library-Museum is no longer managed by the Opera and is part of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
The Sydney Opera House is an expressionist modern design, with a series of large precast concrete 'shells', each taken from a hemisphere of the same radius, forming the roofs of the structure. The Opera House covers 1.8 hectares (4.5 acres) of land. It is 183 metres (605 feet) long and about 120 metres (388 feet) wide at its widest point. It is supported on 580 concrete piers sunk up to 25 metres below sea level. Its power supply is equivalent for a town of 25,000 people. The power is distributed by 645 kilometres of electrical cable.
The roofs of the House are covered with 1.056 million glossy white and matte cream Swedish-made tiles, though from a distance the tiles look only white. Despite their self-cleaning nature, they are still subject to periodic maintenance and replacement.
The Concert Hall and Opera Theatre are each contained in the two largest groups of shells, and the other theatres are located on the sides of the shell groupings. The form of the shells is chosen to reflect the internal height requirements, rising from the low entrance spaces, over the seating areas and up to the high stage towers. A much smaller group of shells set to one side of the Monumental steps and houses the Bennelong Restaurant.
Although the roof structures of the Sydney Opera House are commonly referred to as shells (as they are in this article), they are in fact not shells in a strictly structural sense, but are instead precast concrete panels supported by precast concrete ribs. The building's interior is composed of pink granite quarried in Tarana and wood and brush box plywood supplied from northern New South Wales.
Photo ID: 65670 MSC Opera
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This is a sort of composite suggested by some of the shadows in the original. I haven't decided what I think of it.
The Haskell Free Library and Opera House straddles the Canada-United States border. Since its construction in 1901, it has become a symbol of the harmony between the two countries. The Haskell was a gift to the community given in memory of Carlos F. Haskell by his wife Martha and son Horace Haskell. It was designed by Boston architects James Ball, a Rock Island (Canada) native and his partner Gilbert Smith. The position of the border is depicted by a black line painted on the floor. It starts at the south-west tower and is visible through the center of the building. The library stacks, the Opera House stage and some seats are in Quebec (Canada). The rest of the seats and the main entrances are in Vermont (USA).
The structure rests on a granite block foundation. The cut granite blocks on the first story and the yellow brick on the second , bear the load of the building. The Opera House's hand-painted scenery, roll-up curtain and balcony level frescoes are the work of vermont born, Boston artist Erwin LaMoss. The Haskell has been classified as a historic site the the Quebec, Canadian and United States governments.
For more photos and info see my blog:
meeyauw.blogspot.com/2007/05/haskell-free-library-and-ope....
Hungary. 2015
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The Jugend-classicistic theatre building designed by Finnish architects Armas Lindgren and Wivi Lönn was the largest building in the early 20th century Tallinn. One side of the two-wing building was intended for a theatre and the other for a concert hall. This is so also today. Between the magnificent flanks was a lower part which housed a restaurant (the White Hall) and a cloistered inner court which gave colour to the building. The theatre and concert building was inaugurated on 24 August 1913. Sculptor August Weizenberg donated to the new theatre two of his most stunning marble sculptures, “Koit” (Dawn) and “Hämarik” (Dusk) which decorated the Red Hall of the theatre.
Just a year later, after the outbreak of the World War I, the theatre building was housing a military hospital. The balcony side of the concert hall was used as an Orthodox church. As the theatre hall had not been taken over by the military, the actors continued to play at their own expense.
On 23 April 1919, the first Estonian Parliament – the Constituent Assembly of the Republic of Estonia – assembled in the concert hall of the “Estonia” theatre. A new era began in the history of the theatre and the whole country. The theatre building was reconstructed and in 1934, the balcony in the front of the White Hall was closed and the Green Hall was added to the building.
During the Soviet aerial bombardment of 9 March 1944, the theatre building was destroyed together with many others. The building was renovated in the second half of 1940ies according to the designs by Alar Kotli and Edgar Johan Kuusik. Alar Kotli’s design was inspired by neo-classicism of the 1930ies and by the Stalinist classicism pertaining to the post-war period. The architect tried to preserve the look of the Estonia Avenue side façade of the building and completely changed other façades. The interior was also changed from Jugend style to a more sombre classicist design.
The concert hall was re-opened for public in 1946 and the theatre in 1947. Reconstruction works were completed in 1951 but the lower part between the two flanks was reconstructed only in 1991 as the theatre’s conservatory, known as the national Opera’s Winter Garden. Although the building still belongs to the “Estonia” theatre, three independent institutions are operating in it – the Estonian National Opera in one wing and the State Concert Institution “Eesti Kontsert” and the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra in the other wing.
In 2003 a new multipurpose chamber hall was completed in the opera house, in the autumn of 2004 the theatre hall got a new and modern stage, in 2005 the theatre hall and the rooms for the audience were renovated before the celebrations of a centenary of the professional “Estonia” theatre.
On 6 September 2013 the opera house celebrated its centenary.
Giuseppe Verdi Aida
Musical Director and Conductor: Valery Gergiev
Stage Director: Daniele Finzi Pasca
Production Concept: Daniele Finzi Pasca and Julie Hamelin
Set Designer: Jean Rabasse
Lighting Designer: Daniele Finzi Pasca and Alexis Bowles
Video Designer: Roberto Vitalini, BASHIBA
Costume Designer: Giovanna Buzzi
Props Designer: Hugo Gargiulo
Make-Up Designer: Chiqui Barbé
11 June 2011
Mariinsky Concert Hall, St Petersburg, Russia
Photos: © Mariinsky Theatre | Valentin Baranovsky