Architect Jack Diamond toured many of the world’s leading opera houses before starting work on
Toronto’s Four Seasons Centre, which has its gala opening tonight.
“I learned a lot — about what I wanted, and what I definitely did not want,”
says the plainspoken South African ex-pat and now Toronto resident, roundly abusing
some venues (“sheer kitsch”) while praising others. Diamond says he loathes opera
houses that are self-consciously spectacular, preferring buildings that “keep
their powder dry, until they have the target in sight.” He likes complexes that
reserve their most impressive effects for the concert halls themselves, not the
exterior or assorted foyers.
Diamond’s building has an almost dour grey-brick exterior, which belies the
warmth of the hall’s interior, an effect created by ambient lights, a cozy
horseshoe-shaped auditorium — small for an opera hall — and rich wood paneling.
To make the opera-going experience less elitist than European halls built by and
for aristocrats, Diamond has opened the main lobbies to the passing eye, with
nothing but glass between show-goers and outsiders gaping from the street.
“Opera has been described as the art form born with the silver spoon in its
mouth,” says Diamond. “We wanted to get away from that as much as possible.”
Some commentators predicted opera would never make it through the 20th century.
Instead, it’s thriving. As Canadian Opera Company head Richard Bradshaw recently
commented, “Younger audiences want to have something to look at while they listen —
which of course opera provides.” The Four Seasons Centre assures better visuals:
the farthest any audience member will be from the stage is 40 metres, far closer
than they would be in the cheap seats in the COC’s last home, the long barn that
is the Hummingbird Centre.
Still, it remains to be seen if the Four Seasons Centre will become an integral
part of Toronto’s cultural life. The good modern and traditional houses become so
iconic that they’re celebrated not just by hardcore buffs but in mainstream movies
and books. At their best, they can lend a sense of high occasion, almost a sacred
feeling, to a night at the opera. Some are free-spirited, some restrained; others,
like Diamond’s new creation, are a bit of both. Here, a look at how Toronto’s new
venue stacks up against the world’s great opera houses.
Photo Steven Evans/Diamond and Schmitt Architect Inc/Canadian Opera Company.
Four Seasons Centre, Toronto
Opened: June 14, 2006
Seats: 2,043
Tiers: Five
Architect: Jack Diamond, Diamond + Schmitt
Style: Kind, gentle modernism
Prime movers: Canadian Opera Company head Richard Bradshaw; former Ontario premier Ernie Eves; hotelier Izzy Sharpe; late lawyer R. Fraser Elliott
Features: Longest unsupported glass staircase ever built; space above the stage for
surtitles, an innovation pioneered by the Canadian Opera Company and widely exported; a subterranean storey filled with sound-absorbing pads to stop subway noise from filtering upward.
Opening-night fare: Sadly, no Canadian composers. Performers led by
Ben Heppner and Adrianne Pieczonka take a whistle-stop tour of the major opera-producing nations, including Austria (Mozart), France (Délibes), Germany (Wagner), Italy (Rossini, Verdi) and Russia (Tchaikovsky).
Miscellaneous details: Some of the little extras include a backstage machine to dry wigs and individually heated seats. Three glass stairs in the opulent staircase blew up, but otherwise the project was completed in a comparatively short three years and on budget, at a bargain-basement price of $150 million.
In a nutshell: The rectilinear, severe, pinstriped-grey-suit exterior belies a warm, sensuous womb of a concert hall within.
Photo Getty Images.
New National Theatre, Tokyo
Opened: 1997
Seats: 1,810
Tiers: Four
Architect: Takahiko Yanagisawa
Style: International modernism
Prime movers: A number of corporate donors who formed and funded the Tokyo City Cultural Foundation to plan and manage the site.
Features: A glass mosaic, without Japanese motifs, dominates the foyer; spare, unadorned plywood walls enclose the shoebox-shaped concert hall. The whole complex covers 4.5 hectares, including a retail galleria and a 54-storey skyscraper, which houses the opera company’s administrators.
Opening-night fare: Ikuma Dan’s Takeru
Miscellaneous details: Japan’s prime minister, as well as the country’s Emperor and Empress, attended the gala opening.
In a nutshell: This bland edifice is really an annex to a shopping mall and could have been plopped down anywhere.