Design Elements

Lighting:

The theatrical productions I saw both made great use of the spaces they were in. The Wonderful Circus definitely pushed the envelope back in 1977 when it premiered and gave the requirements by which the theater of the Laterna Magika was designed. Just to cover all the angles, the lighting booth extends across the entire length of the back center row. This would be overkill in most modern theatres, especially now that computer programs are replacing lightboards. In the Narodni Divadlo, the lighting was placed in boxes, hung and there was even a special chunk flown in during the suicide scene that looked just like stadium lighting. As I said before, the flyspace in here seems ideal and the roomy light booth sat at the back of the raked orchestra.

Ceilings:

Just look up, there is where the art of the classical music halls resides. The chandeliers in the more distinguished halls or the broad domes of others all say much that needs to be said about the design. Any mistakes in the proportion or degree of the ceiling can be disasterous to acoustic conditions within the hall. In modern theaters, the ceiling has taken on a role in which it is patched to provide the necessary acoustics, but back in the day, the architect just had to know what he was doing or be copying a proven space. I’ve spent entire movements looking up at the boring ceiling in some halls, but when you provide me with one as overwhelming as the Narodni Divadlo, I can bask in its warm glow for an entire show.

Stages:

First of all, bigger is not necessarily better, especially for theatrical productions that rely so much on physical proximity to affect the audience. Care should be taken to produce an apron that fits within the proportions of the rest of the hall, like the one in the Narodni Divadlo. If that is too small, it can restrict the director’s blocking and cause a disconnect with the first rows of seats. In spaces designed specifically to be concert halls, try to get rid of the proscenium, in certain cases it will block out low sounds and anything that points in its direction. And leave enough space on the wings to drag off scenery; if one has to be larger than the other, make it stage right. The rake of the seating affects how high the stage can be from the orchestra seating level; I always prefer to be able to jump up and down. The director gains a usable barrier and the front few rows of audience don’t have to have neck pain at the end of the show. If you can’t have the perfect size stage for everything, then have a few stages all in one building.

Organs:

The classical music venues in Prague showed a couple of different organ configurations and, unfortunately, I did not get the chance to hear any of them. The Narodni Divadlo situated it at the very top of the hall, above the first column of boxes, which I can not recall seeing anywhere before. I would speculate that this arrangement means the either organ is just for show, or the original was stripped out in a renovation. It does not seem to fit into too many of the shows that go on inside the Narodni Divadlo, or to be as well decorated as the others. The Smetanova Siň and Dvořákova Siň are graced with two beautifully cased organs situated just behind the stage. The Dvořákova organ is boxed in a structure with Doric columns and dark wood, while the Smetanova is the opposite kind of casing that more resembles a cigar wrapper. They round out the design of each space quite well, although it would appear to be too much to ask for the organ to be part of the back wall. In both there is a small chorus balcony situated under the organ, necessary for the large amount of Mozart played in Prague and sometimes used for seating. Most people can’t stand this location behind the musicians, so these seats are always cheap and probably more aptly termed overflow seating. For some reason, audience members are not even given chairs to sit on in these areas.

Seating Plans:

This aspect of the performance space was the most consistent through these cases, only the Laterna Magika doesn’t fit with what appears to be the status quo. And while the status quo applies to Smetanova, it receives an interesting variation because of the dimensions of the hall. The boxes have been limited to only a handful here and the two that are midway back on either side were converted to house lights. This ended up looking quite ridiculous in comparison to the Narodni Divadlo because of the visual isolation those two boxes have. I think they would be best used to address a crowded ball below than to watch a show anyway. Overall, boxes need to be handled delicately; my experience in a box leads me to believe that the feeling of privacy is necessary to fully enjoy the seats. If you expose the box either by not having it surrounded by other boxes or making hierarchical gestures with ornaments, you risk losing that private feeling for the patrons. The other issue that Smetanova brings to the forefront is the importance of raked seating in the orchestra. It was sacrificed in this example for additional functionality, but acoustics can only make up for so much. Part of the concert going experience is being able to watch the musicians and not just the conductor. With the advances in computer modeling, it is well within the realm of today’s seekers of entertainment to expect a wonderful view regardless of where they sit and architects should be able to provide that.