Los Angeles, too often dismissed as “tinsel town” for its association with the entertainment industry, is a vibrant hub of the performing arts, with sophisticated audiences and an abundance of local talent. The LA Philharmonic fills the 2400 seats of Walt Disney Concert Hall for its adventurous programs of classical music, and the LA Opera has sold out the cavernous Chandler Pavilion for a succession of acclaimed productions. The problem - for performers and audiences alike - is a shortage of theaters that combine ideal sight lines and exemplary acoustics. Lacking the generous state subsidies that sustain intimate halls in Europe, American auditoria are shaped by the need to generate revenue from ticket sales and to attract corporate sponsorship.
That bothered Dale Franzen, who had sung opera for 23 years in jewel-box theaters all over Europe, and understood the value of engaging an audience, face to face. To create a showcase for challenging music, opera, theater and dance, she enlisted the support of Santa Monica Community College, a lively institution in west LA that strives to educate an audience far beyond its campus. Their shared vision sparked a quintessentially American hybrid. Dustin Hoffman (who took his first drama class at SMC) led the fund-raising, the city of Santa Monica approved a bond issue, philanthropist Eli Broad provided an endowment, and the Broad Stage opened its doors in October.
The 499-seat theater was designed by Renzo Zecchetto, a Chilean-born architect who has designed houses and institutions from his office in Santa Monica over the past two decades. As a graduate, he was studying the Jesuits’ wooden buildings in Patagonia when he chanced to read The Place of Houses, a treatise co-authored by Charles Moore, and, on impulse, went to work for him in California. There he designed an arts center theater that reminded Franzen of the Rome Opera, and a bond was forged. “From the start, I knew they wanted a versatile, high-quality...
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