Go to the mobile version of this Web site.

Login | Contact Us | Site Map | Paid archives | Alerts | Electronic edition | Advertise | Subscribe to the paper | Today's Extras
Subscribe

Breaking News:

Coming of age

Ellie Caulkins Opera House sails into second year with a few tweaks

Marc Shulgold, Rocky Mountain News

Published September 16, 2006 at midnight

Text size  

More Music

More stories »

Jack Finlaw strolled into the empty Ellie Caulkins Opera House and gazed around, smiling like a proud parent.

"I came to this job to build an opera house," said the director of Denver's Theatres and Arenas division. "This is a great accomplishment. People love the place."

Perhaps. But in the 12 months since the Ellie's opening-night star-studded opera gala, the $93-million theater also has generated its share of gripes. If, as the design team has insisted, the first year was "a shakedown cruise," that cruise encountered some rough seas.

Finlaw has heard the complaints, he can even joke about them. Settling into a front-row seat off to the side, he stared straight across the rows of chairs toward the opposite wall. Suddenly, his eyes opened wide.

"Oooh, look!," he said with playful sarcasm, "I can see all the people sitting over there." It was a mild poke at patrons who complained that the theater's curved seating made it more comfortable to view the audience than the stage.

Since opening night last Sept. 10, Finlaw and designers at Semple Brown have stoutly defended the 2,268-seat hall built within the shell of the Quigg Newton Municipal Auditorium Theatre. Some who attended performances during the inaugural season voiced disappointment about what they considered poor sightlines and narrow, pain-inducing chairs; indifferent acoustics; hard-to-find restrooms, and harder-to-find drinking fountains.

That chorus of misgivings was even set to song by Judge Robert Kapelke, who put new words to the Habañera from Carmen for a variety show at the University Club last January:

As opera house, it's made a splash;

The lobby's chandelier has lots of flash.

But all the seats are one foot wide;

It's rather hard to squeeze your butt inside.

Hard work, hard lessons

"It did feel hurtful," principal designer Peter Lucking said of the initial negative response. "We put our lives into this."

Semple Brown and PCL Construction Services, he reminded, had surmounted a supreme challenge in designing and building a new theater inside of an old one - on deadline. The project was launched by voter approval of a $25 million bond allocation in 2002, and the conversion was begun the following May.

Limited by time (a September '05 opening night was firm) and by the need to retain the auditorium's shell, the design and construction teams had their hands full from the start.

"First of all," Lucking pointed out, "we had planned to complete everything three months earlier, but we couldn't do that. We did open on time, even though the paint was still a little wet."

Unexpected problems with asbestos and the soil beneath the century-old building resulted in construction delays. As Lucking pointed out, there was still work to do as opening night arrived.

Soon after the Ellie was formally unveiled - with a concert of opera scenes featuring Renée Fleming and Ben Heppner, followed the next day by an open house attended by thousands - each of the repairable shortcomings and omissions was addressed. Subsequent fixes cost $100,000.

"Many of those criticisms were valid," Lucking said, adding his own complaint to the lengthy list: He preferred that the first few rows of seats down front be removed so that the originally conceived orchestra pit could extend into the hall. "I'd love to hear opera with the orchestra in the house," he said.

Some problems cannot be corrected or even considered. The seats will remain, along with the controversial lyre-inspired curvature of side rows - a design that caused discomfort and back pains for some patrons, leading a few to vow never to return.

Likewise, the seatback-mounted Figaro translating system is here to stay, despite objections from some opera-goers that the small screens are too difficult to read.

A changing venue

Then there is the larger question about the Ellie's use as a multipurpose facility. During its long life, the Auditorium Theatre (which opened in 1908) hosted a dizzying variety of events: sports, political conventions, lectures, high school graduations, theater, pop music, contemporary dance, films, orchestra concerts and auto shows.

In its first full year of operation, the Ellie has kept busy, hosting a total of 203 programs. But only seven different groups were represented: Opera Colorado, Colorado Ballet, Denver Film Society, Denver Opera, Colorado Children's Chorale, Central City Opera and the Bal de Ballet Pageant. Whatever happened to the "People's Theater"?

"I don't understand where that's coming from," Finlaw said of the multiuse question. "We told (voters) this would be an opera house. This was always to be a home for ballet and opera. Both those art forms are important to a great city."

He then pointed to the number and variety of newly built venues around Denver. "At one time, the auditorium was it. But that's no longer the case."

Finlaw referred to the nearby Lecture Hall, the University of Denver's Newman Center and the renovated Paramount Theatre as significant additions to the city's cultural landscape.

Lucking likewise dismissed the argument that the Ellie has limited use. "It is a 'people's house'," he insisted. "Yes, it is primarily an opera house. But we're also able to put on a Disney theatrical production" - a reference to next summer's staging of The Little Mermaid.

That said, two former auditorium tenants - Cleo Parker Robinson Dance and the Denver Brass - have yet to present concerts in the Ellie, instead taking up residence at the Newman Center's Gates Hall in south Denver.

"We did play once at the Ellie," said Denver Brass executive director Kathy Brantigan, recalling a brief appearance opening weekend. "But we didn't like the acoustics - and that's our first concern. The Gates is a great size for us, and it has terrific acoustics." (Brantigan said she was intrigued when told of the acoustic improvements at the Ellie.)

Size considerations also figure in the decision by Robinson's company to perform at Gates instead of the Ellie.

"The (opera house) conversation is not closed," said Donna Smith, executive director of the dance troupe. "But the Ellie is a big house, and the Newman Center is a more manageable space for our current audience size."

There is, Smith added, the issue of cost. Rent at the nonunion Newman Center averages about $1,000 a night, while the Ellie (a union house) would charge around $2,400, she said. Plus, since the Newman is not a city-owned facility, there's no 10 percent seat tax.

Still reaching out

Finlaw said that he would love to bring in more groups to the opera house.

"We're beating the bushes on those nights the opera and ballet are not here. But we're not anxious to fill the place on dark nights when those two are in residence.

"That's how the hall was designed - as a repertory home for the opera and ballet."

He noted that the cost of moving and replacing opera sets for a single performance would be charged to visiting acts. He also said that, when Opera Colorado's season expands to four productions in 2007, it will be even tougher to book additional performers.

Nonetheless, the building has hosted a variety of activities beyond opera and ballet during its first year. The downstairs Chambers Grant Salon, which houses the restaurant Kevin Taylor's at the Opera House, hosted more than 170 gatherings, attended by more than 22,000 people.

And there are plans for a new performance space within those ancient auditorium walls. On the Champa Street side, across from the Convention Center, is a gaping interior space that, Finlaw promised, will one day house a 350-seat black-box-style studio theater. That space will be used by numerous small dance and theater companies, chamber groups and such.

As a member of one of Mayor Hickenlooper's task forces on infrastructure priorities, Finlaw will make a presentation Oct. 9, requesting a bond issue for the studio theater. Securing the $10 million needed to build that theater and offices directly beneath will be a challenge, he admitted.

"Right now in Denver, there are around $3 billion of project infrastructure needs - including the Botanic Gardens, stock show facilities and Boettcher Hall. But there's only $300 million available."

If all goes according to his timetable, the studio theater will open in September 2008. "Completion of the Newton building remains our top priority," Finlaw said.

Revenue generator

The Ellie's first year might have spawned discussion, debate and dissent. But it has also generated much-needed revenue for the city.

Each of the city-owned theaters at the Denver Performing Arts Complex is charged a fixed rental fee, based on seating capacity, plus a 10 percent seat tax, established in 1975.

During its first four months of operation in 2005, the opera house pulled in $237,510 in tax revenue. The first six months of this year added $215,050. Some presenters may resent the seat tax, but the fact is that the majority of funds used to redo the auditorium (more than $75 million) came from seat-tax revenue.

Finlaw is happy to collect income from users of Denver's theaters. Colorado Ballet, Opera Colorado and others who occupy the Ellie for long periods of time must pay rent for each day in the building - even for nights that are dark.

A busy opera house means revenue for the city and a permanent home for Opera Colorado and Colorado Ballet. For Lucking, it represents much more.

"In the end, it's all about the magic of the performance," he said. "It's certainly not about the pride of those who built the theater.

"We realize the wonderful history of the auditorium. And we want to create new memories. This is a place for everybody."

Punch list

Some of the improvements made during the Ellie's first 12 months of operation:

• TV monitors projecting opera supertitles for patrons in the side boxes were replaced by individual Figaro translation screens.

• The shortage of drinking fountains was addressed with the installation of water dispensers.

• An acoustic dryness was addressed by removing absorbent material on side walls, "to bring more energy to the hall," according to principal designer Peter Lucking.

• The cooling and heating system was adjusted, allowing a better temperature balance throughout the interior.

• The lobby's two major art works - John DeAndrea's massive painting, Rehearsal, and the bronze sculpture of Colorado Ballet dancers Maria Mosina and Igor Vassine - were installed.

Upcoming at the Ellie

• Colorado Ballet: Giselle, Sept. 29-Oct. 15; Dracula, Oct. 19-22; The Nutcracker, Nov. 25-Dec. 24; Where the Wild Things Are and Bruch Violin Concerto, Feb. 23-March 10; Triple Bill, March 17-25. Information: 303-837-8888.

• Opera Colorado: Mozart's The Magic Flute, Nov. 10-19; Donizetti's The Elixir of Love, Feb. 9-18; Verdi's Masked Ball, April 26-May 8. Information: 303-357-2787.

or 303-954-5296

Post your comment

Registration is required. Click here to create your free user account, or login below.

Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.




(Forgotten your password?)




News Tip

Know about something we should be reporting? Tell us about it.

Sponsored links



Reprints