Word: operas
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Apart from the modern vehicles, J?rn Utzon's original submission to a design competition for an opera house on Sydney's Bennelong Point reads like a Hollywood stage direction for a biblical epic: "The audience is assembled from cars, trains and ferries and led like a festive procession into the respective halls, thanks to the pure staircase solution?" With his winning entry for the Sydney Opera House in 1957, the 38-year-old Dane proved to be as ambitious a choreographer of spectacle as D.W. Griffith or Cecil B. DeMille. Leaving behind the rush and grind of the city, opera...
...Thirty-eight years later (note the symmetry), Utzon is back - if not in body, at least in spirit. In 1999, the elderly architect was invited by the Opera House Trust to pen a set of design principles for the ageing building. Three years later, Utzon was employed as principal architect in a $A69 million improvement plan, to be supervised by his son Jan, and Sydney-based Richard Johnson. His first completed interior, a $A4 million chamber-music and function hall, was unveiled in September. "It's inspirational to work with a genius," says architect Johnson. What better time, then...
...Perhaps, but with flying stunts and a house that appears and disappears, the show is dressed to impress. And no wonder, given this team's track record. Mackintosh landed a helicopter on stage in the musical Miss Saigon, crashed a chandelier on the audience in The Phantom of the Opera, and re-created Paris barricades in Les Mis?rables. Schumacher turned the stalls into a jungle in The Lion King, and Bourne made audiences swoon over a flock of male swans in his interpretation of Swan Lake. The team hopes not only to repeat these successes but to surpass them. Mackintosh...
...that can handle three complete scene changes, which used to be done by hand. "Our new stage machinery is the most modern in the world. Until last year we needed hours or days to shift scenery," said Muti. "Now you just push a button." Guided visits through the new opera house are offered on weekends from Jan. 22 to Feb. 12 by appointment, tel: (39-02) 4335-3521. On Dec. 7, 2005 , Così Fan Tutte will be performed to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth. Plan ahead. www.teatroallascala.org
...REOPENED. LA SCALA, celebrated Italian opera house; after a three-year, $81 million renovation; in Milan. The event drew 2,000 VIPs, including Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and actress Sophia Loren, and featured a performance of Antonio Salieri's Europa Revealed, La Scala's inaugural opera...