8 most spectacular opera houses in the world

From Valencia to the Amazon, and New York to Buenos Aires, Alex Sakalis investigates the stories behind the most spectacular opera houses across the globe.

Since its origins in late16th century Italy, opera has forever been viewed as quite possibly the most prestigious discipline in Western musical tradition. To complement its development and continuing popularity, architects have tried to design opera houses that could evoke the majesty of the work of art, while additionally meeting its complex technical and acoustic necessities.

From opulent, Neoclassical palaces to palaces, of modern icons, the following are eight of the most dazzling opera houses all over the world.

Palais Garnier, Paris

Eyebrows were raised when Charles Garnier, an obscure 35-year-old architect, won the competition to design Paris’ new opera house in 1858. His ambitious winning design was worked with an extravagant, no-holds-barred eclecticism that prospered under Emperor Napoleon III. Drawing motivation from Baroque cathedrals, Greek temples, and Renaissance villas, he likewise presented revolutionary current technologies like steel and glass. At the point when asked what style his building was, Garnier answered briskly”Napoleon III style”, inadvertently coining a whole architectural epoch.

During excavations, builders met an unexpectedly elevated level of groundwater which threatened to curtail construction. Garnier improvised a brilliant solution, creating a twofold layered foundation and keeping the groundwater as a supply to use in the event of a fire. However, the entire event spawned a persistent rumor that the theater was worked over a subterranean lake, rumor took advantage of by Gaston Leroux for his 1910 novel The Phantom of the Opera, whose various transformations have adaptations other things than anything to lay out the Palais Garnier in the realm of popular culture.

Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires

Teatro Colón, South America’s premier opera house, is symbolic of turn-of-the-century Argentina when the country was booming and waves of European migrants, especially from Italy and Spain, descended on Buenos Aires. The new theatre was meant to account for the tastes of these new Argentines, while additionally solidifying European cultural norms in the country.

The architects (Francesco Tamburini, Vittorio Meano, and Julio Dormal) were themselves European immigrants, and the building they designed is a sort of aesthetic summation of European history, with Italian, German and French styles generally represented. It opened in 1908 with a production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida.

Sydney Opera House, Sydney

Sydney Opera House is one of those interesting modern buildings that feels like it generally has and consistently will be iconic. In spite of this, its construction was beset by issues, including cost overruns, a workers’ strike, continuous design changes, and the eventual resignation of its architect, Jørn Utzon. As a matter of fact, we came close to ending up with an opera house very different from the one we know today.

The theater was formally opened in 1973, however numerous unofficial performances occurred before. Paul Robeson, baritone and activist, is for the most part credited as the primary individual to perform at the Sydney Opera House. In 1960, he climbed the scaffolding and sang Ol’ Man River to the construction laborers as they had lunch.

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In 2003, Utzon was rewarded with the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize. At the point when the Sydney Opera House has declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007, Utzon turned out to be just the second person to have gotten such acknowledgment for one of his works during his lifetime. The first was Oscar Niemeyer, the architect of the Brazilian capital Brasília.

Teatro alla Scala, Milan

An air of reverence hangs over the Teatro alla Scala, which has for some time been a landmark of Milan, and not only for opera. During the golden age of opera, the Teatro alla Scala was the venue of decision for premieres by Rossini, Verdi, and Puccini. Not one to rest on its laurels, it additionally arranged world premieres of composer-provocateur Karlheinz Stockhausen in the 1980s.

The theater is especially known for its loggione – the upper gallery where modest seats are found. The regulars here referred to as loggionisti, are presumably the most discerning, straightforward opera fans in the world. In 2006, they broadly booed tenor Roberto Alagna off the stage during a performance of Aida, compelling his understudy, Antonello Palombi, to rapidly supplant him mid-scene without time to change into an outfit.

Metropolitan Opera House, New York City

The most prestigious opera house in North America was established in 1883 and moved to its current location in 1966. The architect, Wallace K Harrison, at first envisaged grand atriums and imposing statues yet this was scaled back into a minimalist design with concrete porticoes and waves of white travertine cladding.

Inside the results were greater, with spinning stages, five underground floors, and two giant Marc Chagall murals presently esteemed at $20 million. The ongoing venue opened with the world premiere of Samuel Barber’s Antony and Cleopatra, directed by Franco Zeffirelli and starring Leontyne Price and Justino Diaz. The sheer size of the theater – with 3,850 seats, it’s the biggest opera house in the world- as well as the technologically progressed stage mechanisms keep on evoking awe.

Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, Valencia

A specific degree of skepticism welcomed Santiago Calatrava when he got back to Valencia, Spain, to unleash his City of Arts and Sciences, a cultural complex disguised as a flotilla of alien spacecraft. Chief among them is the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía which emerges from a pool of water to a height of 75 meters, making it the tallest opera house in the world. The inside upholds four venues for opera, music, ballet, and theater, each connected by a flurry of walkways centered around a verdant Mediterranean garden.

This sunny, hi-tech futurism is less about worshipping the past than about heralding the future, moving opera houses past their standing as rarefied and stuffy buildings. What seems discordant ends up striking a harmonious chord.

Regal Opera House, London

An opera house has existed on this Covent Garden site since the 18th Century when it was synonymous with George Handel, who composed a large number of his opera and oratorios specifically for the venue and performed here consistently until his death in 1759. After two disastrous fires, the third incarnation of the Royal Opera House – designed by Edward Middleton Barry – opened in 1858, with its grand, neoclassical façade quickly becoming a local landmark.

During World War One it was utilized to store furniture, while World War Two saw it transformed into a Mecca dance hall. It might have effortlessly stayed this way had the lease not been purchased by music publishers Boosey and Hawkes, who set about assembling a team of experts and aficionados to form The Royal Opera organization in 1946. Maria Callas, Luciano Pavarotti, and Plácido Domingo are only a portion of the illustrious names who have graced the stage here, while the opera can likewise assume credit for supporting numerous future stars – Joan Sutherland, Kiri Te Kanawa, and Geraint Evans all fabricated their names as repertory performers here.

Teatro Amazonas, Manaus

The Teatro Amazonas is maybe the most surreal opera house in the world, a fever dream for 19th Century rubber barons who needed to carry the Belle Epoque to the Amazon.

The theater was inaugurated in 1897 with a production of La Giocondo starring Enrico Caruso. As a matter of fact, it was said that the rubber barons had constructed the theater just to lure Europe’s generally renowned tenor to the jungle. The story of the opera house inspired Werner Herzog’s 1982 film Fitzcarraldo. By then, the Teatro Amazonas had since a long time ago closed, however, the film spurred a revival of interest in the theater, and, after a series of false starts, it returned to regular programming in 1997. Today it houses the Amazonas Philharmonic Orchestra and hosts the annual Amazonas Opera Festival.