Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay or nicknamed as The Durian is a performing arts centre located in the

Downtown Core The Downtown Core is the historical and downtown centre of the city-state of Singapore and the main commercial area in Singapore excluding reclaimed lands with two integrated resorts such as the Marina Bay Sands, one of the most expensive buil ...

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

near the mouth of the Singapore River. Named after the nearby Esplanade Park, it consists of two rounded structures: one housing a

concert hall A concert hall is a cultural building with a stage (theatre), stage that serves as a performance venue and an auditorium filled with seats. This list does not include other venues such as sports stadia, dramatic theatres or convention ...

with about 1,600 seats; and the other a theatre with a capacity of about 2,000 for the performing arts.

History

In 1989, the Advisory Council on Culture and the Arts, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister

Ong Teng Cheong Ong Teng Cheong (22 January 1936 – 8 February 2002) was a Singaporean statesman, architect and union leader who served as the fifth president of Singapore between 1993 and 1999. Born when Singapore was a part of the Singapore in the Straits ...

, produced a report assessing the status of arts in Singapore. The report would form the blueprint for cultural policy in Singapore, and led to the establishment of the National Arts Council and National Heritage Board. The report noted a lack of suitable performance arts venues; for example, Victoria Theatre was deemed only suitable for small to medium-sized performances, while Victoria Concert Hall was similarly lacking in its seating capacity and stage size. It recommended that a new performing arts centre be built, and in 1992 the Singapore Arts Centre (now known as "Esplanade Co Ltd") was established to build the Esplanade. The name for the centre was revealed in 1994. It was named after

Esplanade An esplanade or promenade is a long, open, level area, usually next to a river or large body of water, where people may walk. The historical definition of ''esplanade'' was a large, open, level area outside fortress or city walls to provide cle ...

due to its significant presence in the Esplanade Park. Planning began in 1992, headed by the Singapore Arts Centre Co. It was developed at the cost of about SGD 600 million. Construction officially started on 11 August 1996, with a groundbreaking ceremony officiated by then Deputy Prime Minister Dr. Tony Tan. The Esplanade occupies the site of the former " Satay Club", a popular food haunt for Singaporeans which had been discontinued prior to the Esplanade's construction. The "Satay Club" had been relocated next to Sembawang Shopping Centre before moving over to the Gardens by the Bay since 2012, before closing down. Completed in February 2001, the centre was officially opened on 12 October 2002, by the then President of Singapore S. R. Nathan. On 5 July 2005, the opening ceremony of the

117th IOC Session The 117th International Olympic Committee Session was held for the first time in Singapore from 2 to 9 July 2005. Two important decisions were made through voting during the session – namely the selection of the hosting city for the 2012 Summe ...

was staged in the Esplanade, featuring a 30-minute-long performance aimed at showcasing Singapore's multi-cultural heritage to her international audience. Since 17 April 2010, Esplanade MRT station was opened, which provides a connection to the island's train system and the station was named after the theatre. For its last financial year ending March 2014, the Esplanade incurred a loss of S$2.3 million, the first operating deficit since its opening. This loss was despite the Esplanade racking up relatively similar numbers in terms of audience attendance and activities from the previous year and was attributed primarily to the drop in sponsorship and donations. Exercise Heartbeat 2016, simulating the Nice terrorist attacks, was held at this building on 2 September 2016.

Design

The building was designed by two

architectural Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

firms working in conjunction: by

DP Architects DP Architects Pte Ltd is a Singaporean multinational architectural and industrial design firm. Originally founded as Design Partnership in 1967, it became a private limited company in 1993 and now operates as a multi-disciplinary design consult ...

(DPA) of Singapore and the London-based Michael Wilford & Partners (MWP), although the latter left the project in May 1995. The design consists of two rounded space frames fitted with triangulated glass elements and sunshades, which balance outward views with solar shading.The original design, presented to the public in 1994, consisted of unadorned glass cases over the theatres, and initially elicited criticisms from the public, including calling it "two copulating aardvarks". Critics also accused that the design is insensitive to Singapore's location and climate as it would have created a

greenhouse A greenhouse is a structure that is designed to regulate the temperature and humidity of the environment inside. There are different types of greenhouses, but they all have large areas covered with transparent materials that let sunlight pass an ...

in the tropical climate of Singapore, but according to DPA director Vikas Gore some form of shading was always intended, and a cladding of aluminium sunshades was added to the final design. The unique architectural design has been said to have an appearance similar to either a

durian The durian () is the edible fruit of several tree species belonging to the genus ''Durio''. There are 30 recognized species, at least nine of which produce edible fruit. ''Durio zibethinus'', native to Borneo and Sumatra, is the only species ...

(a tropical fruit) or the eyes of a fly. Hence, the building is colloquially known to locals as ''"the big durians"''. More than 7,000 triangular aluminium sunshades that cover its two circular glass shell structures looked somewhat like spikes on two halves of the fruit. The structure was not intended to be a durian; it ended up being like that because it seemed to the architects the most interesting way of doing sunshades. They wanted to use glass because the views from Esplanade are beautiful in all directions, but since Singapore is so close to the equator, the structure also had to be protected from the sunshine and heat radiation.

Performance venues

Other than performing venues, the Esplanade also contains meeting venues, as well as other lifestyle and arts related services. The

and theatre are connected to the main concourse via a

foyer A lobby is a room in a building used for entry from the outside. Sometimes referred to as a foyer, entryway, reception area or entrance hall, it is often a large room or complex of rooms (in a theatre, opera house, concert hall, showroom, cine ...

, while the Esplanade Mall is accessible through an entry point located between these 2 halls.

Concert hall

The concert hall serves as a venue for

concerts A concert, often known informally as a gig or show, is a live performance of music in front of an audience. The performance may be carried by a single musician, in which case it is sometimes called a recital, or by a musical ensemble such as an ...

, recitals, and other performances. The orchestral platform is able to hold up to 120 musicians. The concert hall's

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurised air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a Musical keyboard, keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single tone and pitch, the pipes are provide ...

comprises 4740 pipes and 61 stops. It was designed and built by Johannes Klais Orgelbau. The Concert Hall is able to seat about 1,600 people over four levels.

Theatre

The Lyric Theatre which has a capacity of about 2,000 seats is a type of an adaptation of the

horseshoe A horseshoe is a product designed to protect a horse hoof from wear. Shoes are attached on the palmar surface (ground side) of the hooves, usually nailed through the insensitive hoof wall that is anatomically akin to the human toenail, altho ...

form of a traditional European

opera house An opera house is a theater building used for performances of opera. Like many theaters, it usually includes a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, backstage facilities for costumes and building sets, as well as offices for the institut ...

Recital Studio

The fan-shaped Recital Studio is able to contain 245 people and is a venue for small scale chamber musical performances, as well as presentations and meetings.

Theatre Studio

The Theatre Studio, with a capacity of up to 220, is a small setting for experimental theatre and dance presentations.

Singtel Waterfront Theatre

On 10 April 2017, the

Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth Ministry may refer to: Government * Ministry (collective executive), the complete body of government ministers under the leadership of a prime minister * Ministry (government department), a department of a government Religion * Christian mi ...

announced that a new mid-sized waterfront theatre will be constructed at the now closed open-air car park. The theatre will cater for arts groups which require a mid-sized venue, facilitating modern productions which typically accommodate an audience of 500 to 1,000 people, and will feature flexible seating arrangements for future art showcases. Costing $30 million, the 550-seat venue will be completed by the second half of 2021. Construction on the theatre officially started on 18 June 2019 with a ground-breaking ceremony officiated by Minister of Culture, Community and Youth

Grace Fu Grace Fu Hai Yien ( zh, s=傅海燕, p=Fù Hǎiyàn; born 29 March 1964) is a Singaporean accountant and politician who has been serving as Minister for Sustainability and the Environment since 2020, and Minister-in-charge of Trade Relations ...

. On the same day, the new theatre's name was unveiled as the Singtel Waterfront Theatre in recognition of

Singtel Singapore Telecommunications Limited, trading as Singtel, is a Singaporean telecommunications conglomerate, the country's principal fixed-line operator and one of the four major mobile network operators operating in the country. Overview T ...

's S$10 million donation. The

committed another S$10 million, with Esplanade raising the remainder of the projected S$30 million through donations. The theatre was completed and opened to the public in October 2022.

Programmes

Esplanade's programmes are broadly organised around key areas – the community and access programmes form the foundation of activities at the centre, collaborations with mainly local arts groups help develop the industry, while leading international productions aim to offer innovative programmes in the major arts genres. These programmes are presented in different festivals and series designed to appeal to a broad range of audiences. Esplanade's in-house programming team presents over 14 festivals and 20 on-going series throughout the year. ;Featured acts In the relatively short time that The Esplanade has been open it has played host to acts and performances, including the

Queen Queen most commonly refers to: * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen (band), a British rock band Queen or QUEEN may also refer to: Monarchy * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Q ...

musical ''

We Will Rock You "We Will Rock You" is a song by the British rock band Queen from their 1977 album '' News of the World'', written by guitarist Brian May. ''Rolling Stone'' ranked it number 330 of " The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" in 2004, and the RIAA it p ...

'', ''

Avenue Q '' Avenue Q'' is a musical comedy featuring puppets and human actors with music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx and a book by Jeff Whitty. It won Best Musical, Book, and Score at the 2004 Tony Awards. The show's format is a parody ...

'' and the defunct Mosaic Music Festival. It has also championed locally based acts.

Gallery

File:Singapore Esplanade - Theatres by the Bay viewed from The Stamford 1.jpg, Aerial view of the Esplanade File:Theatre_and_Concert_Hall,_Esplanade_–_Theatres_on_the_Bay,_Singapore_-_20110528.jpg, Performing Arts Centre, Esplanade, Marina Bay File:Singapore - Merlion Park-Esplanade-Marina Square.jpg, The

-shaped Esplanade stands out in front of the Marina Square area File:Dome of the Esplanade Theatres on the Bay Singapore.jpg, Another view of the performing Arts Centre File:Esplanade_Theatres_on_the_Bay_Singapore_at_blue_hour.jpg, Esplanade Theatres on the Bay at blue hour File:Esplanade_close.JPG, Closeup of the Esplanade shades File:Esplanade concert hall circle 2 reception.jpg, Foyer to the concert hall File:Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay 23.JPG, Interior

Note

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Esplanade - Theatres On The Bay Buildings and structures completed in 2002 Downtown Core (Singapore) Marina Centre Arts centres in Singapore Concert halls in Singapore Opera houses in Singapore Theatres in Singapore Tourist attractions in Singapore Theatres completed in 2002 2002 establishments in Singapore Event venues established in 2002