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Translated by Daniel Wheeler New York: Vendome Press, I995 277 pages, $65.00
What opera house, in its original incarnation, had a gallery for women only? What opera house had an architect who was assassinated before he could finish the job? In what Asian city was an opera house built as a scaled-down version of Paris's opulent Palais Garnier?
You will find the answers to these obscure questions, along with a great deal more information both significant and trivial, in Thierry Beauvert's lavishly illustrated Opera Houses of the World. This is more than an elegant coffee-table book, although elegant it certainly is. There is much to enjoy in the historical, architectural, and artistic documentation, even if the author is rather cavalier in what he chooses to include and omit. A hefty volume carrying a hefty price tag, it is in many ways worth the money, but greater conscientiousness from Beauvert and his editors could have yielded something still more impressive.
Sections on each of fifty theaters are collected into seven categories and arranged chronologically within each category, beginning with "The Curtain Rises" (the earliest opera houses). Beauvert then moves on to "Court Architecture"; "Europe's Modern Theatres," among them those of Milan, Paris, and Vienna; "Inheriting a Tradition." in which he goes as far off the beaten track as Manaus and Hanoi; "Twentieth-Century Variations," such as the Metropolitan Opera and Chicago's Civic Opera House; "Theatres of the Future," ranging from Bayreuth's I2I-year-old Festspielhaus to Lyons's 4-year-old Opera Nouvel; and "Opera Houses Transformed" in which one learns of the upcoming Covent Garden renovation, the reconstruction of Barcelona's firedamaged Teatro Liceo, and the brand-new theater soon to open in Tokyo. Beauvert is intent on showing that opera has been and, it seems, always will be performed in every kind of structure: "skyscraper, museum, palace, galactic spiral" (p. 9).
For many theaters, Beauvert includes a floor plan and/or an architect's cross section. There are helpful chronologies for the construction of each theater, including whatever major renovations have taken place. For each house, a "Facts about the Building" section gives us that house in a nutshell: years of construction, architect(s), capacity and number of tiers, shape of the auditorium, width and depth of the proscenium, and depth of the stage....