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
.
[1]
The building's
modernist
design by was created by Canadian firm
Diamond Schmitt Architects
, headed by
Jack Diamond
. It was completed in 2006, and the interior design includes an unusual glass staircase.
[2]
History
[
edit
]
In the 1980s, the Canadian Opera Company and financier
Hal Jackman
, president of the Ballet Opera House Corporation, had begun lobbying for a new building to replace the O'Keefe Centre (now known as
Meridian Hall
). This building had housed the opera company for about 40 years. The company had also previously been housed in the
Royal Alexandra Theatre
on King Street and the
Elgin Theatre
on Yonge Street.
[3]
Earlier in the city's history, the
Grand Opera House
stood at Bay and Adelaide until it was demolished in 1927.
Bay Street proposal
[
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]
In 1984, Ontario premier
Bill Davis
promised that a piece of provincially owned land at
Bay Street
and
Wellesley Street
would be the home for the new opera house. The lot was estimated to be worth some
CA$
75
million.
[4]
A design competition was won by the postmodern project of
Moshe Safdie
.
[5]
In 1988, the project was approved and the existing stores and government offices on the site were demolished.
After a new
Ontario New Democratic Party
(NDP) provincial government under
Bob Rae
was elected in 1990, inheriting a large deficit because of a recession, the
CA$311
million project was deemed excessively costly. The province was also dealing with the unexpectedly high
CA$550
million cost of the
SkyDome
project. When the opera house corporation refused to modify the design to lower costs, the government withdrew its funding commitment two months after the election.
[6]
In 1992, the province cancelled the project and the land was sold to developers. Two towers in the "Opera Place I and II" development have been built on Bay Street (1998), but as of June 2011, the rest of the property remained vacant until the Teahouse Condo was completed in 2020.
[
needs update
]
University Avenue project
[
edit
]
In 1997, the province allocated a parking lot, which previously housed offices for the
Supreme Court of Ontario
at Queen and University, for the project. The lot was valued at
CA$31
million, and the federal and provincial governments also pledged funding for a new more modest project that would cost about
CA$130
million. The original plan called for a 190 m (620 ft) tower of offices and condominiums to be built by
Olympia and York
which would help fund the project. It would be further supplemented by a
CA$20
million donation by
Christopher Ondaatje
. However, both Olympia and York and Ondaatje developed concerns about the project and withdrew. More importantly, the municipal government of
Toronto
refused to provide any municipal funding.
[7]
The project collapsed again in 2000.
In 2002, the opera company under
Richard Bradshaw
issued an invitation in 2002 for designs. The company had secured a
CA$20
million donation from the
Four Seasons
hotel chain in exchange for perpetual naming rights to the complex. Ten architectural firms submitted proposals and the
modernist
design by Canadian company
Diamond Schmitt Architects
, headed by
Jack Diamond
, was selected.
The complex took three years to construct at an estimated cost of
CA$181
million. To provide wheelchair accessibility, elevator access to the concourse level of
Osgoode subway station
was integrated into the construction of the centre.
[8]
The centre had its grand opening on 14 June 2006, with regularly scheduled performances commencing on 12 September 2006 with the inaugural production in the new opera house being
Richard Wagner
's epic
tetralogy
Der Ring des Nibelungen
(
The Ring of the Nibelung
).
Governor General
Michaelle Jean
and other prominent Canadians attended the event. Three complete Ring Cycles were performed in September 2006.
R. Fraser Elliott Hall design
[
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]
The five-tiered, horseshoe-shaped auditorium was modelled after European
opera houses
. Collaborating with Diamond Schmitt, New York-based theatre planning and design specialists Fisher Dachs Associates
[9]
arranged the room's geometry and seating configuration to bring each of the 2,000 seats, including tiered balconies, as close to the stage as possible while maintaining an unobstructed view.
[10]
[11]
The acoustics were designed by Bob Essert of Sound Space Design
[12]
and a team that included Aercoustics Engineering,
[13]
Wilson Ihrig
[14]
and Engineering Harmonics.
[15]
The undulating back walls of the venue, which diffuse the sound throughout the auditorium by reflecting the sound waves back to the stage, account for about 90 percent of the audible sound for the audience. To prevent audience members from detecting specific sounds and vibrations including traffic noise, the rumble from the adjacent
Line 1 Yonge?University
subway line and
501 Queen
streetcar line, and even the sirens of the emergency vehicles rushing to the nearby hospitals, the theatre sits on 489 rubber insulating pads.
[16]
[17]
Other design elements reflect historic performance halls, including the Roman Amphitheatre.
Exterior
[
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]
The hall was constructed on a limited budget, using contrasting materials. The City Room glass walls, curtain walls held by steel fixtures, look out on University Ave and Queen Street. The east, south and north sides are clad in dark brick. Windows on the north side have a view of Osgoode Hall, but the exterior on that side is unadorned.
[18]
On the west is the sidewalk extension City Room, which is transparent and which illuminates the street. The solid, massive eastern facade broken only by horizontal windows, in contrast, blends into its office building and brick surroundings, towards York Street. John Bentley Mays states in his 2006
Canadian Architect
article that East wall is "unresponsive to the need of vitality on the street." The southern, Richmond Street facade, also plain brick punctuated by dressing room windows, is opposite the Hilton Hotel. Architect Diamond defends his rather plain design, stating, "You do not make a city out of iconic pieces."
[19]
Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre
[
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]
The Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre in the City Room links Rings 3 and 4. It provides seating for 100 patrons. During the season several concerts per week in a variety of genres are presented here.
[20]
Operatic and other production history
[
edit
]
Outside of the standard
opera repertory
, some of the less-often performed, new works, or national premieres performed by the Canadian Opera Company include:
Dancap Productions
has also given presentations of musicals at the Four Seasons Centre, including:
See also
[
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]
Other performing arts venues in the city include:
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Crabb, Michael (27 November 2016).
"Xiao Nan Yu is heart-wrenching in National Ballet's
Onegin
: review"
.
Toronto Star
.
- ^
Kooymans, John; Shafik, Moustafa; Yalles, Halcrow (May 2008). Bos, Freek; Christian Louter; Fred Veer (eds.).
Free Span Structural Glass Staircase
. Challenging Glass: Conference on Architectural and Structural Applications of Glass, Faculty of Architecture, Delft University of Technology. IOS Press. pp. 77?87.
ISBN
978-1-58603-866-3
.
- ^
Eatock, Colin (December 2006).
"The COC builds its dream home"
.
Queen's Quarterly
.
113
(4): 529?537.
- ^
Speirs, Rosemary (20 July 1988).
"It's back to Bay St. for ballet-opera house"
.
Toronto Star
. p. A1
. Retrieved
23 September
2014
.
- ^
"Ballet Opera House"
.
McGill University Library
: Moshe Safdie Archive
. Retrieved
10 July
2021
.
- ^
Maychak, Matt (10 November 1990).
"Opera house may be dead as province backs out"
.
Toronto Star
. p. A1.
- ^
"Phantoms haunted COC's great vision"
.
Toronto Star
. 19 March 2000. p. Entertainment 1
. Retrieved
23 September
2014
.
- ^
"Installation of Elevators at Osgoode Station"
(PDF)
.
Toronto Transit Commission
(Press release). 14 August 2006. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 25 February 2012
. Retrieved
11 December
2012
.
- ^
"Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts R. Fraser Elliott Hall; 2006"
. Fisher Dachs Associates
. Retrieved
23 September
2014
.
- ^
Collins, Janet (21 June 2006).
"Sound of Four Seasons"
.
ArchitectureWeek
: B1. Archived from
the original
on 10 April 2018
. Retrieved
23 September
2014
.
- ^
"Four Seasons Centre Fact Sheet"
. Canadian Opera Company. Archived from
the original
on 7 January 2013
. Retrieved
12 December
2012
.
- ^
"Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts"
. Sound Space Design. Archived from
the original
on 9 January 2016
. Retrieved
23 September
2014
.
- ^
"Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, Toronto"
. Aercoustics Engineering
. Retrieved
23 September
2014
.
- ^
"Building Isolation"
. Wilson Ihrig & Associates
. Retrieved
23 September
2014
.
- ^
"Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts"
. Engineering Harmonics
. Retrieved
23 September
2014
.
- ^
Ashenburg, Katherine (July 2006).
"The House That Jack Built"
.
Toronto Life
. Archived from
the original
on 14 August 2011
. Retrieved
12 December
2012
.
- ^
"Toronto's Four Seasons Centre Achieves Natural Sound with Discreet Meyer Sound System"
. Meyer Sound. March 2007. Archived from
the original
on 12 July 2014
. Retrieved
23 September
2014
.
- ^
Rybczynski, Witold
(8 October 2013).
How Architecture Works: A Humanist's Toolkit
. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. pp. 58?.
ISBN
978-1-4299-5332-0
.
- ^
Mays, John Bentley (September 2006).
"The Look of Music: The Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts"
.
Canadian Architect
. Archived from
the original
on 3 January 2014
. Retrieved
23 September
2014
.
- ^
"Four Seasons Centre For The Performing Arts"
.
Canadian Opera Company
. Retrieved
13 September
2018
.
External links
[
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]