From the Globe again:
THE OPENING
Opera's new home
It has come in on time and on budget. But creating Toronto's new opera house presented immense challenges, from reluctant donors and near-impossible deadlines to legislative delays, a rumbling subway, and misadventures involving wind, fire, water and snow. SANDRA MARTIN completes our series on a remarkable building
SANDRA MARTIN
No wonder Richard Bradshaw likens the building of Toronto's opera house to the Thirty Years' War. In the 1960s, there were hopes leading up to the Centennial, but we got the O'Keefe (now the Hummingbird Centre) instead. In the 1980s, there were lavish plans to build the Ballet Opera House at the corner of Bay and Wellesley streets, but that dream fizzled too.
Now Bradshaw has pulled off something no other general director of the Canadian Opera Company has been able to achieve: the creation of a purpose-built opera house that is, he says, "everything I desire acoustically," and which came in on time and on budget.
That's not to say the process went smoothly. There were huge hurdles to surmount, and more are still to come as the opera house prepares to launch its first complete version of Wagner's Ring cycle in September, followed by Mozart's Cosi fan tutte to open the regular season in October. Here are the major ones.
SITE
Finding a place to build was a torturous problem involving negotiations with three levels of government and co-partnership deals with a series of private developers. Having scuttled the Ballet Opera House in 1989, the province finally provided an alternative site bounded by University Avenue and Queen, York and Richmond streets in 2002, and after some high-level political haggling, agreed not to make the COC pay for the land.
The site was tight given all the essential components (orchestra pit, front and back stages, delivery and service areas, seating for 2,000) and made even smaller by the demands of cost-sharing commercial partners. In October, 2002, the opera board bravely said, Enough: We'll do it alone without an artistic or commercial partner to help shoulder the risk.
MONEY
After so many false starts, the opera company had to convince supporters that there really was going to be an opera house this time. The land (valued at $30-million), the federal contribution ($25-million) and the lead donation ($20-million from the Four Seasons hotel chain) came together in the spring of 2002.
"We had to hit the ground running," says Wendy McDowall, whose tenure as capital-campaign director began that July. Providing an emotional and experiential connection with potential donors for a building that didn't exist got an assist with the April, 2003, groundbreaking and accompanying $10-million donations from the late R. Fraser Elliott and $13-million from the opera board. "We haven't just taken people's money," says McDowall. "We have built a relationship with them."
Even so, delays in amending federal capital-gains legislation to allow tax relief on charitable donations provided toe-stubbing moments. There are less than $15-million still to raise, but McDowell isn't calling it quits until the curtain rises on the regular season in October. "I'm buying those lottery tickets," she laughs.
DESIGN
Architects build for the future, but they must pay attention to the past. The extravagance of the proposed Ballet Opera House increased the pressure to keep the budget tight. A million-dollar roof garden overlooking Osgoode Hall was shelved, as was a $500,000 glass canopy that would have softened the severity of the brick wall on Richmond Street, although they could be revived if funds materialize. Bradshaw bemoans the "19th-century technology" that requires stagehands to haul ropes to change sets because an elevator was cut.
Persuading the city to alter traffic patterns on York Street to allow deliveries on the tight site was an early issue. Eliminating the rumble of the subway, creating a soundless auditorium with acoustics that rival the best in the world, achieving such impeccable sightlines that there is no such thing as a bad seat, and adding dazzle with an innovative sparkling glass staircase linking the lobby and the auditorium were intricate design and engineering puzzles.
CONSTRUCTION
Long before the hoardings went up, Bradshaw had committed the COC to mounting the Ring cycle (a capital campaign in itself). Given the option, he wanted it in the new house. "Richard thought the building could be designed and built in two years, so we freaked out and then compromised on three years," says Janice Oliver, executive director of the Canadian Opera House Corporation.
To pull off this "total miracle," the design team sat down with PCL Construction Group and came up with a strategy to tender the building in three component parts: excavation, foundation and superstructure. The design and construction processes overlapped for at least a year. Misadventures with wind, fire, water and snow created so much havoc on the construction site that they kept wondering when the plague of locusts was going to descend, Oliver says. Contrary to received wisdom, she now believes it is possible to design and build at the same time.
WHAT'S LEFT
A direct link to the Osgoode subway station was built, but so far the City of Toronto has not offered to pick up the tab to complete the link on its side of the subterranean wall. The technical innovations in the orchestra pit are so intricate that two months have been built into the schedule to allow dancers and musicians to attune themselves to performing in the building before the Ring opens in September. The National Ballet hasn't signed its occupancy lease, which is frustrating, but not catastrophic, says Bradshaw. (After all, what's the Ballet going to do: cancel its gala on June 22, or refund subscribers' tickets for the inaugural season?)
These are niggling issues compared to cash flow. That was, and is, the biggest problem. Bradshaw thinks the middle-priced tickets are too expensive, for example, and he'd love to have enough public money to lower them, and to help underwrite ambitious artistic ventures, including Wagner's Ring. Promised government subsidies often arrive late and in lesser amounts, or not at all. "I don't believe in total subsidies, because it leads to laziness," he insists, "but every nation that has ignored the arts in the history of time has been shown to be decadent."
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FLY TOWER
This 37-metre-high tower houses the cables and pulleys that suspend unused sets out of sight above the stage. The sets are precisely counterbalanced with adjustable weight bars, allowing technicians to raise and lower enormous backdrops easily by hand.
EXTERIOR FACING
320,000 manganese iron-spot bricks form the exterior of the structure. This dark, glazed surface is designed to reflect the colours of the sky, adding texture and depth to the building's austere facade.
COMPUTER-TESTED SIGHTLINES
The upper tiers of the auditorium enjoy surprisingly good views of the stage, owing to the gradual tapering of the side aisles, a feature honed through extensive computer modelling. To make it easier to pass seated patrons, each row on this level has more legroom. Ring Five also offers some non-fixed seats on the sides that can be reoriented for a better view.
DISTANCE ACROSS THE HALL
From the centre of the Four Seasons stage slightly back from the footlights, the distance to the last seat in the Orchestra Level is approximately 32 m; to the centre of the Grand Ring, 30.5 m and to the centre of the very last row on Ring Five, 37 m.
SURFACED FOR SOUND
50 mm-thick Venetian plaster on the ceiling and balcony fronts creates a hard finish that ensures good bass response. The plaster is slightly mottled to prevent a shrill, tinny response. Hard, resonant wood is used throughout the auditorium to reflect and boost the low-end frequencies - floors are maple while screens and other wood details are beech.
AERIAL AMPHITHEATRE
The wide upper-level staircase doubles as seating for 100 patrons to enjoy a series of free lunchtime concerts and pre-performance talks. The setting is decidedly informal, with natural light streaming in through the five-storey glass curtain wall and a view of University Avenue.
GLASS STAIRCASE
One of the City Room's most spectacular features is the glass staircase, which rises from the Grand Ring to Ring Four. Its sandblasted glass treads provide traction underfoot and a subtle, translucent effect. The staircase, along with a suspended walkway at the Ring Four level, lets patrons enjoy a panoramic view of the City Room.
SHARING THE FACILITY
As the Four Seasons Centre's principal tenant, the National Ballet of Canada has access to a state-of-the-art dance studio in the northeast corner of the building. The two-storey high space is lined with full-length mirrors and ballet barres.
CITY ROOM
The building's distinctive University Avenue face is a soaring five-storey transparent atrium, with a monumental glass curtain wall rising the full height. This transparent effect emphasizes the democratic nature of the building, inviting the public into the facility for a series of free lunchtime concerts. During the day, the atrium is flooded with natural light. At night, it is lit from within.
THE STAGE
Centre stage is 16 m wide, vs. the 18.3 m-wide Hummingbird Centre stage. Unused sets for up to three simultaneous productions can be stored just off the main stage.
ORCHESTRA PIT
Rises and lowers in two parts, allowing it to be fine-tuned to repertoires as diverse as a Mozart chamber piece or Wagner's Ring cycle, which requires an orchestra of more than 100 musicians.
AIR CONDITIONING
This large enclosure under the auditorium -- the orchestra plenum -- is a reservoir for warm air that heats the auditorium above.
UNDERGROUND ACCESS
The Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts connects directly to Osgoode subway station through an underground concourse.
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RING FIVE
The uppermost seats in Ring Five are tucked almost directly behind the auditorium's high-powered spotlights but the view of the stage remains unobstructed. The follow-spot booth is suspended from the ceiling within a series of sound-reflecting rings that moderate the acoustics and hide the booth from the audience.
RING FOUR
Accessed from the glass staircase and five elevators, this level features the top entrance to the Aerial Amphitheatre, two public lounges with bars, and a private lounge. It has wheelchair-accessible seating on the aisles of the top row.
RING THREE
The performance area of the Aerial Amphitheatre anchors the third-level atrium. Facilities on this level include two hospitality suites for sponsors and private bookings that can accommodate up to 20 people each or can be converted into one larger suite. This level also has wheelchair-accessible seating on the top row.
GRAND RING
Twenty-one private boxes, each of which can seat up to 12 patrons, have private vestibules to hold coats and bags. Each box has sound and light locks, so audience members can come and go without disturbing the performance.
ORCHESTRA RING
The majority of R. Fraser Elliott Hall's seats are accessed directly from the City Room at street level. Designed as a traditional European-style horseshoe-shaped enclosure, the 2,000-seat auditorium and its fly tower form a separate, acoustically contained building within the exterior shell.
BASEMENT
Contains the coat-check area as well as underground access to Osgoode subway station. Its most striking feature is empty space - the orchestra plenum under the auditorium seats acts as a warm-air reservoir. Heated air then rises through low-pressure individual ducts under each seat. In this way, air can be pumped into the auditorium at low pressure, avoiding the rattling and vibration of high-pressure ducts.
PARKING
There is on-site parking for approximately 200 vehicles. There are an additional 3,000 parking spaces within a two-block radius of the Centre.
ISOLATION LEVEL
R. Fraser Elliott Hall rides on a sound-buffering cushion of nearly 500 rubber isolation pads. As a result, noise from passing traffic and the adjacent subway system is virtually eliminated.
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THE FLOATING OPERA HOUSE
The Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts is effectively designed as a building within a building. R. Fraser Elliott Hall forms an acoustically isolated enclosure within the shell of the building. The auditorium walls form a double shell of concrete with a five-to 10 cm gap between them to provide a buffer for airborne noise. All ducts and wiring enter the auditorium through an acoustical buffer, with rubberized seals at every junction. With such measures in place, the inner shell of the centre recently tested at an N1 rating, the highest standard of acoustic isolation.
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The lap of luxury
Seats at the Four Seasons Centre are 53 cm wide, 5 cm wider than the Hummingbird Centre's. A low-pressure vent built into the pedestal of each seat allows air to diffuse noiselessly through the auditorium. This means the hall is completely free of large ducts and vents that can rattle and hiss.
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Where you can sit and what you'll pay
Single tickets
A        $275
2B        $225
1A        $190
1B, 3A        $150
1C, 1D        $120
1E, 3B, 4A, 5A        $90
4B, 5B        $60
3C, 4C, 5C        $202
Three-opera package
2A        $837
2B        $687
1A        $582
1B, 3A        $462
1C, 1D        $372
1E, 3B, 4A, 5A        $282
4B, 5B        $192
3C, 4C, 5C        N.A.*
2006-2007 season
Regular prices (6 operas)
2A        $1,662
2B        $1,362
1A        $960
1B, 3A        $690
1C, 1D        $516
1E, 3B, 4A, 5A        $390
4B, 5B        $246
3C, 4C, 5C        N.A.*
*These seats are available for single performances only to patrons under 30 years of age with valid photo I.D. or on a rush-seating basis, priced at $20 and available after 11 a.m. on the day of the performance.
SOURCES: NISHA LEWIS, CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY; DIAMOND AND SCHMITT ARCHITECTS INC.; THE NATIONAL BALLET OF CANADA
AoD