The groundbreaking of Foster and Partners' Winspear Opera House was celebrated at an impressive ceremony, attended by Academy Award Winner Tommy Lee Jones as well as a choir of 32 trumpets and other performers. The new opera house will be the principal performance venue in the new Performing Arts District of Dallas, staging opera, ballet, music-theatre and other large-scale productions. The building will also become a destination in its own right welcoming the non-opera going public with a restaurant, cafe and bookstore, open throughout the day.
The new building represents a radical rethinking of the traditional opera house. It inverts the closed, hierarchical form creating a transparent, publicly welcoming series of spaces that wrap around the rich red drum of the 2, 200-seat auditorium. An opera house for the 21st Century, the building is democratic, accessible and sustainable. Responding to the specific demands of the Dallas climate, an expansive canopy provides sheltered respite from the hot sun and creates its own microclimate. This inside-outside transitional space extends the building out to the public realm, the new grand plaza, which is further extended when the whole east façade is opened up with its vertical sliding glass panels.
The auditorium is designed to encourage a sense of intimacy with the performers. Its' horseshoe plan and dramatic vertical stacking of tiers ensures that the audience is as close as possible to the stage. A special attention to detail and finishes, which improve the resonance of the human voice, allow the orchestra to sound rich and complex. There are means to adjust the acoustic performance of the space using retractable screens, which allow the flexibility to stage amplified or Broadway productions. These systems, together with the sound and lighting, convey a sense of immediacy to maximise the theatrical experience for artists and audience alike.
The building is transparent, its glass walls revealing views of the public concourse, upper-level foyers and grand staircase. Entered beneath the solar canopy, the transition from the Grand Plaza, through the foyer, into the auditorium is designed to heighten the drama of attending a performance - in effect, 'to take the theatre to the audience'.
The design of the opera house follows Foster and Partner's masterplan for the Performing Arts District, which will eventually encompass performing arts buildings designed by Pritzker Prize winners: Rem Koolhaas, IM Pei and Renzo Piano. Together these new venues represent the most ambitious cultural building project in the city's history. Designed to ensure accessibility and legibility within a pedestrian-friendly environment, the new buildings will relate to one another along the 'green spine' of Flora Street. The Winspear Opera House faces the Grand Plaza and the Annette Strauss Artist's Square performing space and will provide a focal point for the entire district.
Image: Foster + Partners