Norman Foster wrapped a glowing red drum in glass and shaded it with a canopy the size of a city block - Dallas's answer to the question of what a 21st-century opera house should be. The Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House, in the downtown Arts District at 2403 Flora Street, opened in October 2009 as the centrepiece of the AT&T Performing Arts Center. The design inverts the form's snobbery: Foster and Partners - under Pritzker winner Norman Foster and Spencer de Grey - turned the traditionally closed opera house inside out, wrapping the auditorium's scarlet drum in transparent foyers so the city sees the audience and the audience sees the city, with the vast solar canopy cooling an entrance plaza open to everyone. The auditorium is deliberately classical: a horseshoe of 2,200 seats - engineered by acoustician Robert Essert's Sound Space Design specifically for opera and musical theatre - stacks its boxes close to the stage in the Old World manner, with dance flooring built in for ballet; the 42-million-dollar naming gift from Margot and Bill Winspear anchored the 354-million-dollar center. The opening statement was Verdi: the Dallas Opera inaugurated the hall with Otello on 23 October 2009 during a week of dedication festivities, and the company - joined by Texas Ballet Theater - has run its seasons here since, with touring Broadway, concerts and speaker series filling the house between productions. The district completes the argument: the Winspear faces buildings by three other Pritzker winners - Renzo Piano's Nasher, I.M. Pei's Meyerson, Rem Koolhaas's Wyly Theatre across the street - making the Dallas Arts District the densest collection of signature architecture in urban America, with the Klyde Warren Park deck a block north. Practical notes: the M-Line trolley and DART's Pearl/Arts District station serve the block; grand-tier boxes sell the romance but the orchestra's rear center hears the blend best, the pre-show plaza under the canopy is the gathering ritual, and simulcast nights - free opera on the lawn - are the district's best-kept bargain.

Type: Theater / Concert Hall

Address: 2403 Flora Street, Dallas, TX, United States, 75201

Website: https://www.attpac.org

Cover Charge: 1

Capacity: 2200

Opening Date: 12/10/2009

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