Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro
ACOUSTICS: The Story of a Renovation that left Musicians unhappy.
"revista piauí, Edition 51, December 2010 - Google Translation
MUNICIPAL DISSONANCES
Why did the reform of the 'Municipal do Rio' leave musicians and singers dissatisfied?
by Cristina Tardáguila
Upon being renovated, the Municipal do Rio gained a shiny wooden floor, velvet bois de rose fermé armchairs , new scenic machinery and a ceiling that no longer runs the risk of collapsing* onto the audience. Musicians and singers remain unhappy.
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Inaugurated on July 14, 1909, the Municipal was for decades one of the best concert halls in the country. Maria Callas, Arturo Toscanini, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Igor Stravinski, Arthur Rubinstein and Rudolf Nureyev, among many other artists who defined the last century, performed on its stage.
With an architecture inspired by the Paris Opera House, the building was known for its greenish dome, the 6-meter-long golden eagle that tops the roof and the Carrara marble that covers the interior walls and staircases. It is the result of a curious fusion of two architectural projects – “Áquila”, by engineer Francisco de Oliveira Passos, and “Isadora”, by French architect Albert Guilbert – which ended in a tie in the final of the competition promoted by the then mayor Pereira Passos.
In 100 years, the Municipal Building underwent only four renovations. The first, in 1934, increased its occupancy by almost 500 seats. The other, in 1975, took three years and modernized the facilities. The next one, carried out in 1996, built the annex building, which started to be used for artists' rehearsals.
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Yasuhisa Toyota, from Nagata Acoustics – one of the largest consulting companies in the field in the world – wanted to know details of the structural changes made to the 'Municipal Rio de Janeiro'. He listened carefully to reports about changes to the wooden floor, air conditioning, velvet upholstery, and stage pit. He was astonished at the fact that a work with so many interventions capable of affecting the room's acoustic efficiency had been completed in just two and a half years. “The fastest project I've ever done – the new concert hall in St. Petersburg, Russia – took three years,” he said.
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Toyota wanted to know if a commission of musicians and singers had accompanied the renovation. Upon hearing the answer, he regretted it. “In a project like this, it is always important to have this group around. The stage is their home.” He then asked how long the musicians had had to adapt to the new theater configuration. When informed that the soft opening – the name given to the period in which musicians return to the space to work – will take place a month before the official reopening, Toyota was silent. In Los Angeles, the artists had three months to adapt to the new room." - Full article at shorturl.at/coUV8
