The Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts is a 2,071-seat
theatre
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...
in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
, Canada, located at the southeast corner of
University Avenue
A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...
and
Queen Street West
Queen Street is a major east-west thoroughfare in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It extends from Roncesvalles Avenue and King Street in the west to Victoria Park Avenue in the east. Queen Street was the cartographic baseline for the original east-w ...
, across from
Osgoode Hall
Osgoode Hall is a landmark building in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The original -storey building was started in 1829 and finished in 1832 from a design by John Ewart and William Warren Baldwin. The structure is named for William Osgoode, ...
. The land on which it is located was a gift from the
Government of Ontario
The government of Ontario (french: Gouvernement de l'Ontario) is the body responsible for the administration of the Canadian province of Ontario. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown—represented in the province by the lieutenant governor ...
. It is the home of the
Canadian Opera Company
The Canadian Opera Company (COC) is an opera company in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the largest opera company in Canada and one of the largest producers of opera in North America. The COC performs in its own opera house, the Four Seasons Cent ...
(COC) and the
National Ballet of Canada
The National Ballet of Canada is a Canadian ballet company that was founded in 1951 in Toronto, Ontario, with Celia Franca as the first artistic director. A company of 70 dancers with its own orchestra, the National Ballet has been led since 2022 ...
.
[Crabb, Michael (November 27, 2016)]
"Xiao Nan Yu is heart-wrenching in National Ballet’s Onegin: review"
''Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...
''. The building's
modernist
Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...
design by was created by Canadian firm
Diamond and Schmitt Architects
Diamond Schmitt Architects is a Canadian architectural firm founded in 1975. It is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. The firm was founded by architects Jack Diamond and Donald Schmitt.Robinson, John. "Architecture for the People." ''Toront ...
, headed by
Jack Diamond. It was completed in 2006, and the interior design includes an unusual glass staircase.
History
In the 1980s, the Canadian Opera Company and financier
Hal Jackman
Henry Newton Rowell Jackman (born June 10, 1932) is a Canadian billionaire businessman who served as the 25th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario from 1991 to 1997. He is the son of former Member of Parliament Harry Jackman and philanthropist Mary R ...
, president of the Ballet Opera House Corporation, had begun lobbying for a new building to replace the O'Keefe Centre (now known as
Meridian Hall). This building had housed the opera company for about 40 years. The company had also previously been housed in the
Royal Alexandra Theatre
The Royal Alexandra Theatre, commonly known as the Royal Alex, is a theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located near King and Simcoe Street. Built in 1907, the 1,244-seat Royal Alex is the oldest continuously operating legitimate theatre in Nort ...
on King Street and the
Elgin Theatre The Elgin Theatre can refer to:
* Elgin Theatre (Ottawa) in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, a former movie cinema that was the first twin cinema in North America
* Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
* Elgin Theater, a former mov ...
on Yonge Street. Earlier in the city's history, the
Grand Opera House stood at Bay and Adelaide until it was demolished in 1927.
Bay Street proposal
In 1984, Ontario premier
Bill Davis
William Grenville Davis, (July 30, 1929 – August 8, 2021) was a Canadian politician who served as the 18th premier of Ontario from 1971 to 1985. Davis was first elected as the member of provincial Parliament for Peel in the 1959 provincia ...
promised that a piece of provincially owned land at
Bay Street
Bay Street is a major thoroughfare in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the centre of Toronto's Financial District and is often used by metonymy to refer to Canada's financial services industry since succeeding Montreal's St. James Stree ...
and
Wellesley Street Wellesley may refer to:
*
People Dukes of Wellington
* Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769–1852), British soldier, statesman, and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
* Arthur Wellesley, 2nd Duke of Wellington (1807–1884), Briti ...
would be the home for the new opera house. The lot was estimated to be worth some $75 million.
A design competition was won by the postmodern project of
Moshe Safdie
Moshe Safdie ( he, משה ספדיה; born July 14, 1938) is an architect, urban planner, educator, theorist, and author, with Israeli, Canadian, and American citizenship. He is known for incorporating principles of socially responsible des ...
. In 1988, the project was approved and the existing stores and government offices on the site were demolished.
After a new
NDP
NDP may stand for:
Computing
* Neighbor Discovery Protocol, an Internet protocol
* Nortel Discovery Protocol, a layer two Internet protocol, also called SONMP
* Nondeterministic programming, a type of computer language
Government
* National ...
provincial government under
Bob Rae
Robert Keith Rae (born August 2, 1948) is a Canadian diplomat and former politician who is the current Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations since 2020. He previously served as the 21st premier of Ontario from 1990 to 1995, leader of the ...
was elected in 1990, inheriting a large deficit because of a recession, the $311 million project was deemed excessively costly. The province was also dealing with the unexpectedly high $550 million cost of the
SkyDome project. When the opera house corporation refused to modify the design to lower costs, the government withdrew its funding commitment two months after the election.
In 1992, the province cancelled the project and the land was sold to developers. Two towers in the "Opera Place" development have been built on Bay Street, but as of June 2011, the rest of the property remains vacant.
University Avenue project
In 1997, the province allocated a parking lot, which previously housed offices for the
Supreme Court of Ontario
The Supreme Court of Ontario was a superior court of the Canadian province of Ontario. Created in 1881 pursuant to the Ontario Judicature Act (1881), the Supreme Court of Ontario had two branches: the High Court of Justice Division and the Appell ...
at Queen and University, for the project. The lot was valued at
C$31 million, and the federal and provincial governments also pledged funding for a new more modest project that would cost about $130 million. The original plan called for a tower of offices and condominiums to be built by
Olympia and York
Olympia & York (also spelled as Olympia and York, abbreviated as O&Y) was a major international property development firm based in Toronto, Canada. The firm built major financial office complexes including Canary Wharf in London, the World Fina ...
which would help fund the project. It would be further supplemented by a $20 million donation by
Christopher Ondaatje
Sir Philip Christopher Ondaatje, OC, CBE, FRSL (; born 22 February 1933) is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian–English businessman, philanthropist, adventurer, writer and bob-sledding Olympian for Canada. Ondaatje is the older brother of the author Mic ...
. However, both Olympia and York and Ondaatje developed concerns about the project and withdrew. More importantly, the municipal government of
Mel Lastman
Melvin Douglas Lastman (March 9, 1933 – December 11, 2021) was a Canadian businessman and politician who served as the third mayor of North York from 1973 to 1997 and 62nd mayor of Toronto from 1998 to 2003. He was the first person to serve ...
refused to provide any municipal funding.
The project collapsed again in 2000.
In 2002 the opera company under
Richard Bradshaw issued an invitation in 2002 for designs. The company had secured a $20 million donation from the
Four Seasons hotel chain in exchange for perpetual naming rights to the complex.
Ten architectural firms submitted proposals and the
modernist
Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...
design by Canadian company
Diamond and Schmitt Architects
Diamond Schmitt Architects is a Canadian architectural firm founded in 1975. It is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. The firm was founded by architects Jack Diamond and Donald Schmitt.Robinson, John. "Architecture for the People." ''Toront ...
, headed by
Jack Diamond, was selected.
The complex took three years to construct at an estimated cost of $181 million. To provide wheelchair accessibility, elevator access to the concourse level of
Osgoode subway station was integrated into the construction of the centre.
The centre had its grand opening on 14 June 2006, with regularly scheduled performances commencing on 12 September 2006 with the inaugural production in the new opera house being
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
's epic
tetralogy
A tetralogy (from Greek τετρα- ''tetra-'', "four" and -λογία ''-logia'', "discourse") is a compound work that is made up of four distinct works. The name comes from the Attic theater, in which a tetralogy was a group of three tragedies ...
''
Der Ring des Nibelungen
(''The Ring of the Nibelung''), WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from Germanic heroic legend, namely Norse legendary sagas and the '' Nibe ...
'' (''The Ring of the Nibelung'').
Governor General
Governor-general (plural ''governors-general''), or governor general (plural ''governors general''), is the title of an office-holder. In the context of governors-general and former British colonies, governors-general are appointed as viceroy t ...
Michaëlle Jean
Michaëlle Jean (; born September 6, 1957) is a Canadian stateswoman and former journalist who served from 2005 to 2010 as governor general of Canada, the 27th since Canadian Confederation. She is the first Haitian Canadian and black person ...
and other prominent Canadians attended the event. Three complete Ring Cycles were performed in September 2006.
R. Fraser Elliott Hall design
The five-tiered, horseshoe-shaped auditorium was modelled after European
opera house
An opera house is a theatre building used for performances of opera. It usually includes a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and building sets.
While some venues are constructed specifically for o ...
s. Collaborating with Diamond Schmitt, New York-based theatre planning and design specialists Fisher Dachs Associates
arranged the room's geometry and seating configuration to bring each of the 2,000 seats, including tiered balconies, as close to the stage as possible while maintaining an unobstructed view.
The acoustics were designed by Bob Essert of Sound Space Design
and a team that included Aercoustics Engineering, Wilson Ihrig
and Engineering Harmonics.
The undulating back walls of the venue, which diffuse the sound throughout the auditorium by reflecting the sound waves back to the stage, account for about 90 percent of the audible sound for the audience. To prevent audience members from detecting specific sounds and vibrations including traffic noise, the rumble from the adjacent
subway line and
streetcar line
A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...
, and even the sirens of the emergency vehicles rushing to the nearby hospitals, the theatre sits on 489 rubber insulating pads.
Other design elements reflect historic performance halls, including the Roman Amphitheatre.
Exterior
The hall was constructed on a limited budget, using contrasting materials. The City Room glass walls, curtain walls held by steel fixtures, look out on University Ave and Queen Street. The east, south and north sides are clad in dark brick. Windows on the north side have a view of Osgoode Hall, but the exterior on that side is unadorned.
On the west is the sidewalk extension City Room, which is transparent and which illuminates the street. The solid, massive eastern facade broken only by horizontal windows, in contrast, blends into its office building and brick surroundings, towards York Street. John Bentley Mays states in his 2006 ''Canadian Architect'' article that East wall is "unresponsive to the need of vitality on the street." The southern, Richmond Street facade, also plain brick punctuated by dressing room windows, is opposite the Hilton Hotel. Architect Diamond defends his rather plain design, stating, "You do not make a city out of iconic pieces".
Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre
The Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre in the City Room links Rings 3 and 4. It provides seating for 100 patrons. During the season several concerts per week in a variety of genres are presented here.
Operatic and other production history
Outside of the standard repertory, some of the less-often performed, new works, or national premieres performed by the Canadian Opera Company include:
* 2006: First Canadian production of
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
's ''
Der Ring Des Nibelungen
(''The Ring of the Nibelung''), WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from Germanic heroic legend, namely Norse legendary sagas and the '' Nibe ...
''
* 2007: ''
Lady Macbeth
Lady Macbeth is a leading character in William Shakespeare's tragedy '' Macbeth'' (). As the wife of the play's tragic hero, Macbeth (a Scottish nobleman), Lady Macbeth goads her husband into committing regicide, after which she becomes quee ...
''
* 2008: ''
From the House of the Dead
''From the House of the Dead'' () is an opera in three acts by Leoš Janáček. The libretto was translated and adapted by the composer from the 1862 novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was the composer's last opera, premiered on 12 April 1930 at ...
''
* 2010: ''
Maria Stuarda
''Maria Stuarda'' (Mary Stuart) is a tragic opera (''tragedia lirica''), in two acts, by Gaetano Donizetti, to a libretto by Giuseppe Bardari, based on Andrea Maffei's translation of Friedrich Schiller's 1800 play '' Maria Stuart''.
The opera i ...
''
* 2011: ''
Iphigenia in Tauris
''Iphigenia in Tauris'' ( grc, Ἰφιγένεια ἐν Ταύροις, ''Iphigeneia en Taurois'') is a drama by the playwright Euripides, written between 414 BC and 412 BC. It has much in common with another of Euripides's plays, ''Helen'', as w ...
''
* 2012: ''
Love From Afar''
* 2012: ''
A Florentine Tragedy
''A Florentine Tragedy'' is a fragment of a never-completed play by Oscar Wilde. The subject concerns Simone, a wealthy 16th-century Florentine merchant who finds his wife Bianca in the arms of a local prince, Guido Bardi. After feigning hospita ...
/
Gianni Schicchi
() is a comic opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, composed in 1917–18. The libretto is based on an incident mentioned in Dante's ''Divine Comedy''. The work is the third and final part of Puccin ...
''
* 2012: ''
Semele
Semele (; Ancient Greek: Σεμέλη ), in Greek mythology, was the youngest daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia (Greek goddess), Harmonia, and the mother of Dionysus by Zeus in one of his many origin myths.
Certain elements of the cult of Dionysu ...
''
* 2018: ''
Hadrian
Hadrian (; la, Caesar Trâiānus Hadriānus ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He was born in Italica (close to modern Santiponce in Spain), a Roman ''municipium'' founded by Italic settlers in Hispania B ...
''
Dancap Productions
Dancap Productions was a theatre production company based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
It was founded in 2007 by Aubrey Dan. Since then, it has brought many productions to Toronto. Its longest running production is ''Jersey Boys''. The touring comp ...
has also given presentations of musicals at the Four Seasons Centre, including:
* 2010: ''
Miss Saigon
''Miss Saigon'' is a stage musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, with lyrics by Boublil and Richard Maltby Jr. It is based on Giacomo Puccini's 1904 opera ''Madame Butterfly'', and similarly tells the tragic tale of a doomed rom ...
''
* 2010: ''
South Pacific''
* 2011: ''
Next to Normal
''Next to Normal'' (stylized in all lowercase) is a 2008 American rock musical with book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey and music by Tom Kitt. The story centers on a mother who struggles with worsening bipolar disorder and the effects that managing ...
''
* 2011: ''
Colm Wilkinson
Colm Wilkinson (born 5 June 1944), also known as C. T. Wilkinson, is an Irish tenor and actor who is best known for originating the lead role of Jean Valjean in ''Les Misérables'' (in the West End and Broadway) and for taking the title role in ...
in Concert''
* 2011: ''
Come Fly Away
''Come Fly Away'' is a dance revue conceived, directed and choreographed by Twyla Tharp, around the songs of Frank Sinatra. The musical, set in a New York City nightclub, follows four couples as they look for love.
It premiered on Broadway in M ...
''
See also
Other performing arts venues in the city include:
*
Budweiser Stage
The Budweiser Stage, originally known as the Molson Amphitheatre, is a concert venue in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located on the grounds of Ontario Place and hosts many diverse acts, including genres like rock, pop, country, and jazz. The ...
*
Massey Hall
Massey Hall is a performing arts theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Opened in 1894, it is known for its outstanding acoustics and was the long-time hall of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. An intimate theatre, it was originally designed to sea ...
*
Meridian Arts Centre
The Meridian Arts Centre is a performing arts venue in the North York district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It opened on October 16, 1993, as the North York Performing Arts Centre and was designed by Canadian architect Eberhard Zeidler for music ...
*
Meridian Hall
*
Roy Thomson Hall
Roy Thomson Hall is a concert hall in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located downtown in the city's entertainment district, it is home to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, and the Toronto Defiant. Opened in 1982, its circ ...
References
External links
Four Seasons CentreCanadian Opera Company – Four Seasons CentreCanadian Encyclopedia – Four Seasons CentreAercoustics Engineering Limited
{{authority control
Concert halls in Canada
Opera houses in Canada
Music venues in Toronto
Music venues completed in 2006
Theatres completed in 2006
2006 establishments in Ontario