Agony in the Opera
An opera house is a theatre building used for performances of opera. It usually includes a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and building sets.
While some venues are constructed specifically for operas, other opera houses are part of larger performing arts centers. Indeed, the term opera house is often used as a term of prestige for any large performing-arts center.
The Ministry of the Interior had commissioned a number of reports into the availability of certain building materials, with the result that stones long not seen in Vienna were used.
By example Wöllersdorfer Stein, for plinths and free-standing, simply-divided buttresses, the famously hard stone from Kaisersteinbruch, whose colour was more appropriate than that of Kelheimerstein, for more lushly decorated parts.
The somewhat coarser-grained Kelheimerstein (also known as Solnhof Plattenstein) was intended as the main stone to be used in the building of the opera house, but the necessary quantity was not deliverable.
Breitenbrunner stone was suggested as a substitute for the Kelheimer stone, and stone from Jois was used as a cheaper alternative to the Kaiserstein.
The staircases were constructed from polished Kaiserstein, while most of the rest of the interior was decorated with varieties of marble.
Marble is a metamorphic rock consisting of carbonate minerals (most commonly calcite (CaCO3) or dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2)) that have recrystallized under the influence of heat and pressure.
It has a crystalline texture, and is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions.
The building was, however, not very popular with the public. On the one hand, it did not seem as grand as the Heinrichshof, a private residence which was destroyed in World War II (and replaced in 1955 by the Opernringhof).
Moreover, because the level of Ringstraße was raised by a metre in front of the opera house after its construction had begun, the latter was likened to 'a sunken treasure chest' and, in analogy to the military disaster of 1866 (the Battle of Königgrätz), was deprecatingly referred to as "the 'Königgrätz' of architecture".
Eduard van der Nüll committed suicide, and barely ten weeks later Sicardsburg died from tuberculosis so neither architect saw the completion of the building.
The opening premiere was Don Giovanni, by Mozart, on 25 May 1869. Emperor Franz Josef and Empress Elisabeth (Sissi) were present.
In geology, the term marble refers to metamorphosed limestone, but its use in stonemasonry more broadly encompasses unmetamorphosed limestone. Marble is commonly used for sculpture and as a building material.
Comments
Post a Comment
be not rough one to the other