WHATEVER else anyone may say about the new Carnival Center for the Performing Arts here, it is certainly integrated into the surrounding urban landscape. Biscayne Boulevard, a historic downtown thoroughfare, runs right through the middle of the place.
Designed by the architect Cesar Pelli, the $446 million Carnival Center occupies 570,000 square feet on both sides of the boulevard. Its two main buildings, the Sanford and Dolores Ziff Ballet Opera House and the Knight Concert Hall, are connected by an elegant pedestrian bridge, and the courtyards of these enormous edifices and the stretch of Biscayne Boulevard that runs between them are paved with the same handsome reddish bricks to form a continuous outdoor plaza. When the Carnival Center opened in October, the street was closed to traffic for a day; a free multicultural festival was held in the plaza, with tango bands, Haitian music, salsa, hip-hop and klezmer. More than 25,000 people attended.
Naturally, the opera house and the concert hall are the major attractions, and last weekend proved an opportune time for a visit. On Friday night the Cleveland Orchestra, as part of a three-week residency this season, played works by Osvaldo Golijov, Alberto Ginastera and Mahler in the concert hall. The following night the Florida Grand Opera introduced a new production of Puccini’s “Manon Lescaut” in the opera house, which is also now home to the Miami City Ballet.
During the two decades it took to make the dream of this center a reality, three separate economic impact statements were commissioned to convince civic and corporate leaders that it could revitalize a drab section of downtown Miami. Few such ventures come in on budget, and this one had a cost overrun of $102 million.
And there was a casualty along the way: In 2003 the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra, a respected ensemble serving Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties, and a major proponent of the project from the start, declared bankruptcy and suspended operations.The Carnival Center now has an inviting and intimate 2,000-seat concert hall but no resident orchestra.
The Cleveland Orchestra is to return every season for a three-week residency. And the New World Symphony, the acclaimed orchestra academy run by the conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, will present major programs in the hall. But Mr. Thomas’s orchestra of top-notch young players is based in Miami Beach, and he plans to build a hall and teaching center, designed by Frank Gehry, near its current home, the Lincoln Theater. So for now most of the programs presented at Knight Concert Hall will be concerts by visiting orchestras, one-time events (like a recent performance of Mr. Golijov’s “Pasión Según San Marcos”) and performances by jazz ensembles, ethnic music groups and popular artists.
Cultural insiders in Miami report that there is still bitterness among musicians over the demise of the Philharmonic. The overall annual budget for the Cleveland residency, which involves teaching workshops and outreach programs as well as concerts, is $3.5 million, most of it raised from contributors in Miami and Cleveland. An inability to raise a stopgap $2.5 million finally sank the Florida Philharmonic.
Still, the Cleveland Orchestra concert was nearly sold out. As a gesture to Miami’s large Spanish-speaking population, the orchestra’s music director, Franz Welser-Möst, began the program with works by Argentine composers.
Mr. Golijov’s “Last Round” takes the sound of a tango played on the accordionlike bandoneón and reconceives it for a bustling string orchestra heavily fortified with basses. Ginastera’s spunky 1953 “Variaciones Concertantes” incorporates evocations of Argentine folk music into a lean, rigorous and harmonically astringent 20-minute piece. But the highlight of the program was Mr. Welser-Möst’s clear-headed and vibrant account of Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, however curious it was to hear several flubbed solos from such a formidable orchestra.
In what is becoming a trend, the stage of the concert hall extends into the auditorium. Rows of seats along the wall behind the stage can accommodate either a chorus or 200 extra patrons. A large organ loft, covered by a beautifully designed hibiscus curtain, awaits the purchase of an organ, whenever a donor comes along.
After one hearing I hesitate to pronounce on the hall’s acoustics, designed by Russell Johnson of Artec. Mr. Johnson has received wide-ranging reactions to his work. Like Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, another Johnson project, the Knight Concert Hall auditorium is flanked on either side by reverberation chambers with 82 huge concrete doors, covered with fabric and wood, which can be open or closed. This design element allows the hall to be “tuned,” as Mr. Johnson puts it, just like an instrument. Getting the tuning right, which can take many months, is bound to be a subjective call.
Overall, the Cleveland Orchestra sounded full-bodied and clear, though the acoustics seemed to favor the lower-register instruments, especially the rich basses. The soft, sustained high violins in the opening of the Mahler lacked shimmer. The sound was pure but a bit thin. Yet the symphony’s brassy finale had plenty of clarion presence.
I had no problem with the acoustics Mr. Johnson designed for the Ziff Ballet Opera House. This 2,400-seat auditorium is tall, with four tiers of balconies, but not deep. Even in the back of the top balcony the seats are just 139 feet from the stage. From my central seat on the main floor, the voices came through clearly, and the orchestra, conducted by Angelo Cavallaro, had warmth and presence.
The old-fashioned production of “Manon Lescaut” from the Montreal Opera, directed by Bernard Uzan, realistically if somewhat drearily, evokes the late-18th-century French setting for this story of young Manon, who falls impulsively in love with the ardent and penniless Chevalier des Grieux but has a fatal weakness for jewels and finery. Puccini’s first big success, “Manon Lescaut” teems with impassioned emotions and soaring vocal lines.
The lovely French soprano Sylvie Valayre brought temperament, intensity and stylistic insight to her portrayal of Manon. But in full-voiced outbursts, her sound turned raw and wobbly. The des Grieux was a hefty young tenor, Hugh Smith, who sang with impressive power and belted out the top notes. But his singing was blunt and muscular. The deftly staged crowd scenes allowed the company’s robust chorus to shine.
Projected titles provided simultaneous English and Spanish translations, an essential policy in this bilingual city. In the lobbies during intermission, smartly dressed operagoers of all ages conversed in Spanish.
Drawing in Spanish-speaking residents in South Florida has been a defining mission of the Carnival Center from its inception. The complex includes the Studio Theater, a black-box performance space that can accommodate 200 people, which has proved a popular place for ethnic music and dance events, and the Peacock Education Center, a large workshop and classroom.
Still, it may take time to build audiences. An article published in The Miami Herald last Sunday reported that, three months and 100 performances into the center’s first season, ticket sales have been lackluster, some $900,000 below projections, forcing administrators “to find new ways of connecting with Miami audiences.” On average, the article said, 59 percent of available tickets have been sold, down from the 64 percent the center’s directors anticipated. Classical music events have sold the best. The Florida Grand Opera had a major hit with its production of Verdi’s “Aida” last fall, featuring the soprano Angela M. Brown, a star in the making, in the title role.
Attendance may be affected by stories of parking hassles. Although the center is a block away from a major bus terminal, most people use cars to get there. There are parking lots in the vicinity, but the Carnival Center’s garage is a valet-only operation, and after the symphony concert, a long line of patrons waited outside on the balmy night for valets.
The Cleveland Orchestra tour managers had a brainstorm: they provided free cookies, soft drinks and water, which the queued-up concertgoers happily accepted.
No comments:
Post a Comment