Great Grand And Famous Opera Houses

Take a tour of the world's most beautiful opera venues, from exquisite gems of early theatre design to modern masterpieces including the iconic Sydney Opera House. Each opera house profile provides an engaging guided tour of the building's architectural features and interior design. It goes behind the scenes to reveal colourful stories of the patrons, impresarios and stars whose larger-than-life personalities, tempestuous relationships and outrageous behaviour at times surpassed the melodrama on stage. Chapter introductions trace the broad history of opera and fascinating feature spreads turn the spotlight on key figures and aspects of production ranging from singers, composers and conductors to stage machinery and costume design. Sumptuous, entertaining and inspiring, it will delight not only opera lovers and connoisseurs of architecture, but all those intrigued by the history of music, art and culture.

Opera houses--temples to the art of Mozart, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, and more--have been created by some of the most talented architects and designers of their generations, inspiring centuries of veneration from audiences, filled with royalty and commoners alike. In this sumptuous book, photographer Guillaume de Laubier and journalist Antoine Pecqueur explore more than 25 of the world's most beautiful opera houses, from Tokyo to Covent Garden, from Oslo to Chicago, from Milan to New York. The buildings are described in their historical contexts, while stunning photography reveals the theaters' most captivating spaces. In addition to offering sweeping views of ornate auditoriums and facades, the book opens doors normally closed to the public, entering the artists' dressing rooms, rehearsal halls, scenery workshops, and more, presenting a wide-ranging and compelling look into a spectacular world. Praise for The Most Beautiful Opera Houses in the World: "Performance spaces take the spotlight in The Most Beautiful Opera Houses in the World and you don't need to be a music buff to appreciate their range. The photographs by Guillaume de Laubier capture 32 theaters across the globe in rich detail . . . Who knew empty stages made for such good theater?" --Wall Street Journal "With the growing popularity of massive arenas, it is often difficult to think back to a time when going out for a night of music was synonymous with elegance. But a new book has rediscovered the high art of these exquisite theater spaces. The Most Beautiful Opera Houses in the World contains hundreds of photographs showing the exteriors and auditoriums of these cultural treasures--and is a reminder why these architectural wonders are worth a visit." --FOXNews.com

Renaissance Europe, with its humanistic impulse, may have brought the cathedral-building Middle Ages to an end, but it rechanneled the religious fervor of the old era into a new cult, the cult of opera, whose grandiose rites demanded theatres as monumental and as prominently placed as any cathedral ever built. In Opera Houses of the World the musicologist Thierry Beauvert narrates in text and glorious image alike, the story of those fabulous buildings - the princes of the blood or of commerce who commissioned them, the architects who designed and decorated them, the composers who wrote for them, the golden-voiced singers who performed on their stages, and even the audiences who still attend performances like worshippers in sacred temples.

Grouped by geographic region, this easy-to-use resource contains important historical information on structures - some destroyed as well as those still standing - including dates, name changes, seating capacity, and more. Many of the buildings featured are National Historic Landmarks or are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Almost 140 vintage and recent photographs bring to life these magnificent buildings and the operatic scenes enacted on their stages.

"Anthony Gishford has collaborated with five other distinguished writers on opera, Harold Rosenthal, Tony Mayer, Horst Koegler, Patrick Carnegy and Richard Comyns Carr, to record the many widespread artistic achievements which this extravagant medium has inspired over the centuries. The text is written with a dry humor which, while not hesitating to poke fun at the pomopous targets of the opera world, never forgets that this is an art form which inspires passionate devotion as well as uncomprehending dismay. The book is divided into twelve national sections and within each of these the individual opera houses are separately treated. There has never, until now, been a book which attempted to explore this subject with such wide scope. Illustrations of the architecture, of historic performances, of programs, prints and all the lore of the operatic stage make the book a vivid contribution to this branch of theater history." --

This illustrated guide to 100 of the world's most important concert halls and opera houses examines their architecture and engineering and discusses their acoustical quality as judged by conductors and music critics. The descriptions and photographs will serve as a valuable guide for today's peripatetic performers and music lovers. With technical discussions relegated to appendices, the book can be read with pleasure by anyone interested in musical performance. The photographs (specially commissioned for this book) and architectural drawings (all to the same scale) together with modern acoustical data on each of the halls provide a rich and unmatched resource on the design of halls for presenting musical performances. Together with the technical appendices, the data and drawings will serve as an invaluable reference for architects and engineers involved in the design of spaces for the performance of music.