Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House

Last updated
Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House
Winspear Exterior.JPG
Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House
Address Dallas Arts District'
Dallas
Coordinates 32°47′27″N96°47′53″W / 32.790822°N 96.797921°W / 32.790822; -96.797921
Public transit BSicon TRAM1.svg M-Line : Olive & Flora
Type Opera house
Capacity 2,300
Construction
Opened2009
Architect Foster + Partners and Kendall/Heaton Associates, Inc.
Website
attpac.org

The Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House is an opera house (one of four venues in the AT&T Performing Arts Center) located in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas (USA).

Contents

Designed as a 21st-century reinterpretation of the traditional opera house, the Winspear seats 2,200 (with a capacity of 2,300) in a traditional horseshoe configuration.

The facility is the home of The Dallas Opera (which until the 2008/2009 season performed at the Music Hall at Fair Park) and the Texas Ballet Theater. The AT&T Performing Arts Center also produces original programming and partners with local and national organizations to present a wide range of other cultural performances at the venue. These offerings include music, dance, Broadway shows, concerts and lectures.

The Winspear Opera House includes the Nancy Hamon Education and Recital Hall, a space that can be used for smaller performances seating audiences up to 200, as well as classes, rehearsals, meetings and events.

History

Western view of the Winspear Opera House. The Annette Strauss Artist Square will be housed under this section of the building's portico Winspear Opera House 27.jpg
Western view of the Winspear Opera House. The Annette Strauss Artist Square will be housed under this section of the building's portico

Groundbreaking for the AT&T Performing Arts Center and Winspear Opera House was held in October 2006. The venue was designed by Foster and Partners (principal architect: Spencer de Grey) and made possible in part by a $42-million gift from Margot and Bill Winspear, for whom the facility is named. The London firm Sound Space Design (principal acoustician: Robert Essert) developed the acoustical design of the opera house and the acoustics were engineered specifically for performances of opera and musical theater. Theatre planning and theatre equipment design were by Theatre Projects Consultants. The stages were also equipped with appropriate flooring for performances of ballet and other forms of dance.

The opera house was presented to the public with tours and performances during the center's opening week, October 12 – 18, 2009. The first opera performance took place on October 23, 2009 with Verdi's Otello , conducted by Graeme Jenkins. [1]

Design features

Auditorium and chandelier during opening night Winspear Opera House 18 auditorium.jpg
Auditorium and chandelier during opening night

The Annette and Harold Simmons Signature Glass Façade wraps around the building, creating a transparency between the opera house and the surrounding Performance Park. An 84-foot (26 m) wide section of the glass façade is retractable to a height of 23 feet (7.0 m), literally opening up the Grand Lobby, Cafe and Box Circle-level Restaurant to Performance Park.

The Grand Portico, radiating from the opera house on all sides, provides shade over 3 acres (12,000 m2) of the Performance Park. The solar canopy's louvers are arranged at fixed angles following the path of the sun. By eliminating most direct sunlight on the façade and by creating a cooler microclimate around the building, the canopy significantly reduce the energy requirements of the Winspear Opera House.

In May 2009 artist Guillermo Kuitca was commissioned to design the stage curtain. The design abstracts the seating plan for the Winspear's Margaret McDermott Performance Hall and reproduces this image onto the curtain itself. [2]

A key design feature is the 318-rod chandelier located inside the performance hall, named The Moody Foundation Chandelier. The chandelier hangs 50 feet below the ceiling. Starting Friday, June 28, 2013, the traditional pre-performance ascent of The Moody Chandelier has been accompanied by an exclusively adapted piece “The Light” by American composer Philip Glass. [3] Once retracted into the ceiling, it leaves the impression of a star lit night, as each rod has the ability to "twinkle." The acrylic rods are illuminated by three primary color LEDs which allows the chandelier to be lit in virtually any color.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts</span> US national cultural center in Washington, D.C.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is the United States National Cultural Center, located on the eastern bank of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. It was named in 1964 as a memorial to assassinated President John F. Kennedy. Opened on September 8, 1971, the center hosts many different genres of performance art, such as theater, dance, orchestras, jazz, pop, psychedelic, and folk music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dallas Opera</span> Opera company in Dallas, Texas, USA

The Dallas Opera is an American opera company located in Dallas, Texas. The company performs at the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House, one venue of the AT&T Performing Arts Center.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Opéra Bastille</span> French opera house

The Opéra Bastille is a modern opera house in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, France. Inaugurated in 1989 as part of President François Mitterrand's Grands Travaux, it became the main facility of the Paris National Opera, France's principal opera company, alongside the older Palais Garnier; most opera performances are shown at the Bastille along with some ballet performances and symphony concerts, while Palais Garnier presents a mix of opera and ballet performances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Four Seasons Centre</span> 2,071-seat theatre in Toronto

The Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts is a 2,071-seat theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located at the southeast corner of University Avenue and Queen Street West, across from Osgoode Hall. The land on which it is located was a gift from the Government of Ontario. It is the home of the Canadian Opera Company (COC) and the National Ballet of Canada. The building's modernist design by was created by Canadian firm Diamond and Schmitt Architects, headed by Jack Diamond. It was completed in 2006, and the interior design includes an unusual glass staircase.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arts District, Dallas</span> Neighborhood in Dallas, Texas

The Arts District is a performing and visual arts district in downtown Dallas, Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Queensland Performing Arts Centre</span> Australian performing arts venue

The Queensland Performing Arts Centre is part of the Queensland Cultural Centre and is located on the corner of Melbourne Street and Grey Street in Brisbane's South Bank precinct. Opened in 1985, it includes the Lyric Theatre, Concert Hall, Playhouse and Cremorne Theatre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Academy of Music (Philadelphia)</span>

The Academy of Music, also known as American Academy of Music, is a concert hall and opera house located at 240 S. Broad Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Despite its name, the Academy has never contained a music school. It is located between Locust and Manning Streets in the Avenue of the Arts area of Center City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denver Performing Arts Complex</span> Entertainment complex in Colorado, U.S.

The Denver Performing Arts Complex in Denver, Colorado, is one of the largest performing arts centers in the United States. The DCPA is a four-block, 12-acre (49,000 m2) site containing ten performance spaces with over 10,000 seats connected by an 80-foot-tall (24 m) glass roof. It is home to a professional theater company and also hosts Broadway musical tours, contemporary dance and ballet, chorales, symphony orchestras, opera productions, and pop stars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ordway Center for the Performing Arts</span> Performing arts center in Saint Paul, Minnesota, U.S.

The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, in downtown Saint Paul, Minnesota, hosts a variety of performing arts, such as touring Broadway musicals, orchestra, opera, and cultural performers, and produces local musicals. It is home to several local arts organizations, including the Minnesota Opera, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and The Schubert Club. The president and CEO, Christopher Harrington, has served since November 2021, and Producing Artistic Director Rod Kaats has been with the Ordway since February 2018.

The Cultural District is a fourteen-square-block area in Downtown Pittsburgh bordered by the Allegheny River on the north, Tenth Street on the east, Stanwix Street on the west, and Liberty Avenue on the south.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dallas Theater Center</span>

The Dallas Theater Center is a major regional theater in Dallas, Texas, United States. It produces classic, contemporary, and new plays and was the 2017 Tony Award recipient for Best Regional Theater.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts</span> American performing arts center

The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts is in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, USA, at 16th and Broadway, near the city's Power & Light District, the T-Mobile Center and the Crossroads Arts District. Opened in 2011, it houses two venues: the 1,800-seat Muriel Kauffman Theatre, home of the Kansas City Ballet and Lyric Opera of Kansas City; and the 1,600-seat Helzberg Hall, home of the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra. Both venues host a variety of artists and performance groups in addition to these three resident entities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre</span> Concert hall in Atlanta, Georgia

Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre is a performing arts venue located in the Cumberland/Galleria edge city, in northwest Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The $145 million facility celebrated its grand opening September 15, 2007, with a concert by Michael Feinstein and Linda Eder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center)</span> Opera house in Manhattan, New York

The Metropolitan Opera House is an opera house located on Broadway at Lincoln Square on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Part of Lincoln Center, the theater was designed by Wallace K. Harrison. It opened in 1966, replacing the original 1883 Metropolitan Opera House at Broadway and 39th Street. With a seating capacity of approximately 3,850, the house is the largest repertory opera house in the world. Home to the Metropolitan Opera Company, the facility also hosts the American Ballet Theatre in the summer months.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Municipal Theatre of Santiago</span>

The Teatro Municipal, National Opera of Chile is the most important stage theatre and opera house in Santiago, Chile.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AT&T Performing Arts Center</span> Performing arts center in Dallas, Texas

The AT&T Performing Arts Center in Dallas, Texas, preliminarily referred to as the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts, is a $354-million multi-venue center in the Dallas Arts District for performances of opera, musical theater, classic and experimental theater, ballet and other forms of dance. It opened with a dedication by city leaders on October 12, 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre</span>

The Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre is a theatre at the AT&T Performing Arts Center, located in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas (USA). It is one of four venues that comprise the AT&T Performing Arts Center and was dedicated October 12, 2009. The 80,300-square-foot building is twelve stories tall and holds about 600 people, depending upon the stage configuration. It is the new venue for the Dallas Theater Center, Dallas Black Dance Theatre and Anita N. Martinez Ballet Folklorico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elaine D. and Charles A. Sammons Park</span>

The Elaine D. and Charles A. Sammons Park is a public park in the new AT&T Performing Arts Center, located in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas (USA). The park opened on October 12, 2009, and weaves together the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House, the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, Annette Strauss Artist Square and City Performance Hall. It includes canopies of mature trees, large expanses of grass and a series of gardens, reflecting pools, promenades and walkways.

The Texas Ballet Theater was founded by Margo Dean in 1961 as the Fort Worth Ballet Association, in Fort Worth, Texas. At the invitation of Dean, Fernando Schaffenburg was invited to direct the company the following year. It became a fully professional ballet company in 1985. In 1988, after the demise of Dallas Ballet, the company began adding performances of The Nutcracker in Dallas in a business partnership with The Dallas Opera, producing Nutcracker performances in The Music Hall and using The Dallas Opera Orchestra.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Musiktheater im Revier</span>

Musiktheater im Revier (MiR) is the venue for performing opera, operetta, musical theatre and ballet in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. It opened on 15 December 1959; it is listed since 1997 as a protected cultural monument.

References

  1. Chism, Olin (January 14, 2008). "Dallas Opera announces first season in new house". Art & Seek. Retrieved April 20, 2018.
  2. "Dallas Center Commissions Guillermo Kuitca To Design Opera Curtain". DesignTAXI. 13 May 2009. Retrieved 20 January 2010.
  3. Chandelier in Winspear Named After $5M Gift From the Moody Foundation