Quote:
Originally Posted by Colin May
A concert hall is not a performing arts venue. Great concert halls are expensive, good concert halls are expensive. Multi purpose concert halls rarely work, too many compromises to meet the needs of different groups.
A venue with several buildings would be the best, and expensive solution.
I often wonder about the operating costs and revenue of the various facilities, Spatz auditorium, Alderney Landing, the auditoria (?) in schools.
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Very true. There is some misinformation out there that the Cohn was originally designed as a lecture hall, not a concert hall. Having looked at the original design documents and promotional material, it is clear that it was designed first and foremost as a concert hall, and it's a pretty good one at that - apart from the fact that the acoustics are a little too dry, and the seating capacity is a little on the small side. Would it be great to have a new one? Yes, especially considering the Cohn is constantly booked wall-to-wall with events.
As someone who's worked tech for theatre shows in various performing arts venues around HRM, and knows people who have worked in most of them, there are very few venues that could be called "perfect," that's for sure.
The Bella Rose and Spatz Theatres lack in technical capabilities, fly towers, and sufficient wing space, especially compared to previous auditoriums in St. Pat's and QEH - the Spatz doesn't even have a stage right wing! Guess everyone's going to have to enter the set from stage left. They made do with the resources they had when designing and building them, but they both come off as kind of half-assed. The Bella Rose is a step above the Spatz, at least.
Neptune's Fountain Hall is a well-designed, classic space, but the stage is far too small for some of the productions Neptune puts on, especially for some of the big musical numbers involving choreography. Considering this is Halifax's "premiere" theatre company, I wish they had a bigger main stage...
The best venue in the city for theatre and dance, in my opinion, is the James Dunn Theatre in the Dalhousie Arts Centre - the largest proscenium arch stage in Halifax, by far, and one of the largest in Atlantic Canada, massive wing space, stage elevators, a 45-foot fly tower, well-designed backstage and technical facilities...it's that rare situation where they got everything right. The only downside (and it's a big one) is the small seating capacity (around 200), and lack of wide availability for outside productions due to its use by Dal's Fountain School of Performing Arts, but the stadium seating means the sightlines are perfect.
Fun fact...the Dunn has also been rented out as a makeshift soundstage for films - the Pierce Brosnan miniseries "Bag of Bones" used it for this purpose...