Theaters aren’t merely spaces we associate with wonderful sound — in many instances they are architecturally stunning as well. Continuing our exploration of the world’s most beautiful halls, here are five more of our favorites.
The Bolshoi Theatre
This historic Moscow theater traces its roots to Prince Pyotr Urusov and Michael Maddox, to whom Catherine II granted a 10-year license to organize entertainment in the Russian capital. The duo quickly built a theater, the Petrovsky, which opened in 1780 and burned down 25 years later. A second, larger theater by architect Andrei Mikhailov opened in 1825 in its place. It came to be known as the Bolshoi (“Big”) Theatre — but it, too, was destroyed by fire in 1853. Three years later the current Bolshoi opened, this time designed by Alberto Cavos, who said he “tried to decorate the auditorium as extravagantly but at the same time as lightly as possible, in Renaissance taste mixed with Byzantine style."
Teatro Massimo
Palermo’s opera house is the largest in all of Italy, and the third largest venue in Europe behind Paris’s Palais Garnier and Vienna’s State Opera. First opened in 1897 — after 33 years of planning and building — the building has closed on numerous occasions throughout its history, due at one point to Mafia corruption. One of its more interesting features is its “Symbolic wheel,” an intricately designed ceiling fixture that the theater describes as “resembling a wide flower with eleven petals.” It has a functional purpose, too — those petals open and close, and served as the original ventilation system.
Cape Town City Hall
Completed in 1915, this large limestone building in South Africa’s legislative capital formerly housed the city’s administrative offices, and is now used for concerts by the resident Cape Philharmonic Orchestra. Among its more stunning features is a 3,165-pipe organ, built in 1905 and designed by George Martin of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, and a clock tower that dutifully chimes the Westminster Quarters.
Roudaki Hall
Persian-American architect Eugene Aftandilian took some design cues from the Vienna State Opera when he designed Tehran’s opera house, considered at the time of its 1967 inaugural (at least by Contemporary Architecture of Iran) as one of the “best-equipped” in the world. After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the name was officially changed to Vahdat Hall (“vahdat” is Arabic for “unity”).
Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall
This exterior of this concert hall in Costa Mesa, California, uses an entire acre of glass, offset by beige Portuguese Limestone. Inside is Francesca Bettridge's captivating “Constellation,” a lighting-design installation that includes Swarovski crystals and hundreds of Baccarat-crystal-tipped stainless steel pendants.
