VANCOUVER - Vancouver’s much maligned Queen Elizabeth Theatre re-opened this week after years of re-construction and decades of controversy. For a Thursday morning sneak peek walkthrough, the wraps came off the theatre’s design revamp (courtesy of Proscenium Architecture and Interiors and Aerocoustics Engineering). On Friday evening Vancouver Civic Theatres hosted a celebration and a short musical test drive.
The changes are significant and visually stunning.
Vancouver had long needed a proper civic auditorium when the Queen E was planned in the 1950s,. In a competition brokered by UBC School of Architecture’s Fred Lasserre, a jury whose leading light was famed Eero Saarinen opted for a design from Montreal based firm ARCOP. This was the first theatre by the team that went on to design Montreal’s Place des Arts and the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, and the design was an attractive one—more than a little influenced by London’s Royal Festival Hall. The late Abraham Rogatnick wrote that the Queen E “lifted this city into the realm of urban sophistication with a suddenness that makes us shake our heads and rub our eyes.”
Unfortunately, not everyone has shared his enthusiasm for the venue. Originally it was intended to be a “multi purpose” hall of about 3,000 seats which would supposedly house everything from orchestra concerts and opera to stage shows and lectures. It didn’t. Space that works for opera doesn’t work for an orchestral program or a recital, let alone a rock concert. And attractive as the space was, most of us hated its sound. Recent acoustician John O’Keefe agrees: “The old acoustic was typical of its age, with a very dry sound and not a very good spacial acoustic; the sound didn’t surround you. It wasn’t loud enough, not intimate enough, not warm enough, and it didn’t respond to the bass.”
From what we could hear Friday, all this may be a thing of the past. Even singing from the midst of the Orchestra section, the combined voices of the Vancouver Welsh Mens’ Chorus and the UBC Opera Ensemble rang out with greater presence and vibrancy.
The acoustic solution was effected in stages. Several seasons ago the dramatic, quasi-expressionist ceiling was taken out, with significant impact on the sound; the mechanical system was made absolutely quiet. Then came the real challenge, making the room narrower in acoustic terms, more in line with the traditional shoe-box concept that seems to consistently produce good listening conditions. The overall aim is clarity, with new reflective surfaces tilted downward and inward.
Wood is everywhere, carpets have been banished except in the far reaches of the balcony, and new bamboo reflectors will redirect sound. In a courteous gesture to the hall’s original incarnation, some of the golden plywood side walls have been retained. As well as creating more leg room, the reduction in seats offers better sound reflection.
Of course it will take performances and productions of all sorts before we find out all there is to know about the Queen E’s personality and her new voice. But for those of us who’ve longed for improvement to a key venue in our cultural treasury, the auguries are very good indeed.
The changes are significant and visually stunning.
Vancouver had long needed a proper civic auditorium when the Queen E was planned in the 1950s,. In a competition brokered by UBC School of Architecture’s Fred Lasserre, a jury whose leading light was famed Eero Saarinen opted for a design from Montreal based firm ARCOP. This was the first theatre by the team that went on to design Montreal’s Place des Arts and the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, and the design was an attractive one—more than a little influenced by London’s Royal Festival Hall. The late Abraham Rogatnick wrote that the Queen E “lifted this city into the realm of urban sophistication with a suddenness that makes us shake our heads and rub our eyes.”
Unfortunately, not everyone has shared his enthusiasm for the venue. Originally it was intended to be a “multi purpose” hall of about 3,000 seats which would supposedly house everything from orchestra concerts and opera to stage shows and lectures. It didn’t. Space that works for opera doesn’t work for an orchestral program or a recital, let alone a rock concert. And attractive as the space was, most of us hated its sound. Recent acoustician John O’Keefe agrees: “The old acoustic was typical of its age, with a very dry sound and not a very good spacial acoustic; the sound didn’t surround you. It wasn’t loud enough, not intimate enough, not warm enough, and it didn’t respond to the bass.”
From what we could hear Friday, all this may be a thing of the past. Even singing from the midst of the Orchestra section, the combined voices of the Vancouver Welsh Mens’ Chorus and the UBC Opera Ensemble rang out with greater presence and vibrancy.
The acoustic solution was effected in stages. Several seasons ago the dramatic, quasi-expressionist ceiling was taken out, with significant impact on the sound; the mechanical system was made absolutely quiet. Then came the real challenge, making the room narrower in acoustic terms, more in line with the traditional shoe-box concept that seems to consistently produce good listening conditions. The overall aim is clarity, with new reflective surfaces tilted downward and inward.
Wood is everywhere, carpets have been banished except in the far reaches of the balcony, and new bamboo reflectors will redirect sound. In a courteous gesture to the hall’s original incarnation, some of the golden plywood side walls have been retained. As well as creating more leg room, the reduction in seats offers better sound reflection.
Of course it will take performances and productions of all sorts before we find out all there is to know about the Queen E’s personality and her new voice. But for those of us who’ve longed for improvement to a key venue in our cultural treasury, the auguries are very good indeed.
