Toronto Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts | ?m | 5s | COC | Diamond Schmitt

Ladies Mile said:
I might be in the distinct minority, but I love the Opera House. It has a warm, gracious interior, an austere but sensible interior and excellent acoustics and seating/sight lines.

I actually have trouble thinking of a better one anywhere (that I've visited at least). Paris is ghastly rococo twaddle, New York is twinkly motel glitter and Albert Hall in London, while not an opera venue, is one of the world's most poorly designed public buildings in terms of function, right up there with Wright's beautiful but perverse Guggenheim Museum.
Click to expand...

grey said:
Aren't the blinds there as part of some green energy-reducing feature? I think they look pretty cool, in a functional way.
Click to expand...

So, there are 2 features that I hate, but overall I LOVE our opera house. More to the point, the facility is allowing the opera company to grow into a great opera company.

Welcome, Ladies Mile!!! :)
 
Ladies Mile said:
I might be in the distinct minority, but I love the Opera House. It has a warm, gracious interior, an austere but sensible interior and excellent acoustics and seating/sight lines.

I actually have trouble thinking of a better one anywhere (that I've visited at least). Paris is ghastly rococo twaddle, New York is twinkly motel glitter and Albert Hall in London, while not an opera venue, is one of the world's most poorly designed public buildings in terms of function, right up there with Wright's beautiful but perverse Guggenheim Museum.
Click to expand...

And here's Wright's loopy 1957 opera house design for Baghdad - presaging the sort of Dubai-like spectacle we've all come to simply adore:

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/1469/pictures/iq_op1.jpg
 
Ladies Mile said:
I actually have trouble thinking of a better one anywhere (that I've visited at least). Paris is ghastly rococo twaddle, New York is twinkly motel glitter and Albert Hall in London, while not an opera venue, is one of the world's most poorly designed public buildings in terms of function, right up there with Wright's beautiful but perverse Guggenheim Museum.
Click to expand...

You are of course referring to the old Paris opera (the Garnier). As for the new Paris Opera (La Bastille), we took a look at that thing up close and personal a year ago and I found it depressing, inside and out.
 
Jack Diamond singled out the interior perversity of Wright's Guggenheim last night in his talk at the Central Reference Library - as well as remarking how it breaks up what he termed the "aggregate" established by successful streetwalls; as a fancy shape it might have worked better as a big statement located in the middle of a square. I'm sorry I missed the first half hour of the evening - he's so informative.
 
TonyV said:
You are of course referring to the old Paris opera (the Garnier). As for the new Paris Opera (La Bastille), we took a look at that thing up close and personal a year ago and I found it depressing, inside and out.
Click to expand...

Ott's the Ben Johnson of the Canadian architectural scene: when he won the competition he was proudly ours, but now he's just another Jamaican ... I mean Uruguayan.
 
TonyV said:
You are of course referring to the old Paris opera (the Garnier). As for the new Paris Opera (La Bastille), we took a look at that thing up close and personal a year ago and I found it depressing, inside and out.
Click to expand...


Yes, I haven't had a chance to visit the inside of La Bastille. It does look a bit grim from outside.

The old one is the biggest hunk of junk in the city, and given that it has the Madeline, the Eiffel Tower and the Pantheon for company, that's saying something.
 
Urban Shocker said:
Jack Diamond singled out the interior perversity of Wright's Guggenheim last night in his talk at the Central Reference Library - as well as remarking how it breaks up what he termed the "aggregate" established by successful streetwalls; as a fancy shape it might have worked better as a big statement located in the middle of a square. I'm sorry I missed the first half hour of the evening - he's so informative.
Click to expand...

I actually like that it louses up the streetwall of Fifth Avenue--that stretch is incredibly dreary and ugly and the big swooping shape is a nice surprise. The interior is a marvel, but simply isn't fit to hang a picture in, alas.
 
Ladies Mile said:
The old one is the biggest hunk of junk in the city, and given that it has the Madeline, the Eiffel Tower and the Pantheon for company, that's saying something.
Click to expand...

Ha! Well, you've certainly started out swinging! Welcome to UT LM, it should be an entertaining ride for you!

42
 
MetroMan said:
Street Level: Subway/PATH entrance
Click to expand...
Speaking of the PATH - has the PATH connections that have been shown as "future walkway" on the PATH Map for years opened? I haven't been in the Four Seasons Centre for a while ... gave up Opera for something a bit more cultural - Football (though being able to bring the baby with me to BMO Field had a lot to do with that!).
 
Ladies Mile said:
I actually like that it louses up the streetwall of Fifth Avenue--that stretch is incredibly dreary and ugly and the big swooping shape is a nice surprise. The interior is a marvel, but simply isn't fit to hang a picture in, alas.
Click to expand...

... or to swim upstream in and take a second look at one. Considered purely as stairs, Momo's double spiral at the Vatican Museum is fun; the metal one in the Osgoode Hall American Room is my local favourite.

I enjoy the grand staircase at the Four Seasons Centre more than being on the famous glass stairs higher up - pause on the landing until you have their full attention and slowly descend into the sea of operagoers on the main floor. Or have an alarming Audrey Hepburn Funny Face moment in something bright red by Givenchy.
 
MetroMan said:
screenshot20091024at145.png
Click to expand...

.... sort of looks like a toilet with the seat down:cool:

Ladies Mile said:
The old one is the biggest hunk of junk in the city, and given that it has the Madeline, the Eiffel Tower and the Pantheon for company, that's saying something.
Click to expand...

Thank god for French excess. I'd hate to live in a world without it.
 
TonyV said:
You are of course referring to the old Paris opera (the Garnier). As for the new Paris Opera (La Bastille), we took a look at that thing up close and personal a year ago and I found it depressing, inside and out.
Click to expand...

I'd take the Rococo twaddle any day over that pile. It looks like an office building near Pearson Airport--and it was built on top of a 130-year-old train station besides. I'd like to see that Marc Chagall removed and the original mural restored, too. I love it, but it's out of place in the Opera Garnier. The Phantom would not approve! ;)
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top