The eagerly-awaited Long Center for the Performing Arts, the new home of the ASO (Austin Symphony Orchestra), the Austin Lyric Opera, and Ballet Austin is finally open for business in downtown Austin, Texas! It was 10 years in the making from conception to execution and it came in on budget and on time; there must be a lesson in there somewhere for other arts organizations across the country.

In fact, the Long Center is not a new facility but a radical enlargement of an old one. In 1998 the city of Austin decided to lease the Palmer Auditorium and turn it into a community arts venue. The lead gift was $20 million from Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long, hence the name of the new building. Originally, the new center was to house four theatres but this concept was later scaled back to cut costs.

The new plan was based on a main 2,400 seat hall (later named the Michael and Susan Dell Hall) and a very small 240 flexible-seat space (named the Debra and Kevin Rollins Studio Theatre). Some of the lobby space was also sacrificed. The total cost of the project was $77 million. The architects were TeamHaas in conjunction with Ziedler Partnerships. Fisher Dachs Associates were in charge of theatre planning and design. Acoustics were handled by Jaffe Holden Acoustics, Inc.

The great strength of the Long Center is its location. It faces parkland on the banks of the Colorado River, called Ladybird Lake (formerly Town Lake) as it flows through downtown Austin, and beyond the river are the high-rise towers of the bourgeoning city center. Outside the building is a large concrete patio partially enclosed by columns arranged in a semi-circle. In the daytime the Austin skyline is impressive in the distance and at night the lights from the towers are scintillating.

Full House Poses Parking Problem
The weakness of the location is that it is in the heart of one of the most popular destinations in Austin. The Palmer Events Center next door has numerous events attracting large crowds, and the parkland by the river known as Auditorium Shores has frequent outdoor popular music shows and political rallies – Barack Obama spoke to a crowd of 35,000 here a year ago – which draw thousands. When all three venues are in action, parking and traffic flow quickly become a nightmare. That is exactly what happened during the opening events at the Long Center when hundreds of ticket-holders for the symphony and the opera could not get to their seats in time. Bad planning? No doubt about it, but also a sign of how fast Austin is growing. Short-term solutions will probably involve rerouting traffic and setting up shuttles from downtown parking garages.

Architecture Inside Out Says “Green” is Beautiful
The Long Center is not a particularly impressive building. The word which comes to mind is ‘functional.’ The lobby space is modest in size and has no particular architectural character. The view from the lobby is an asset but it would have been enhanced by having even larger windows.

Visitors to the Long Center have the option of walking outside either on ground level or on the open balconies on either side of the large concrete patio. The balconies can be used for receptions and tables and chairs have been set up for concertgoers to take the night air.

Clearly, the Long Center will not rival other fine Texas concert facilities such as the Myerson in Dallas, the Wortham Center in Houston or the Bass Hall in Ft. Worth for the beauty of its design or the opulence of its fixtures, but it is definitely a step up from facilities used in the past by the ASO and Austin Lyric Opera. And, as one local reporter astutely pointed out, the Long Center was built with conservation and sound environmental principles in mind – something of which the city can be proud, most would agree.

Symphony Shows off Acoustics in Dell Hall
For his first subscription concert in the Dell Hall, Austin Symphony music director Peter Bay chose a Spanish program:

Boccherini-Berio: “Four Original Versions of the Night Retreat from Madrid”
Granados: Goyescas: Intermezzo
Rodrigo: Concierto “Andaluz” for Four Guitars and Orchestra
Falla: “El Sombrero de Tres Picos” (complete)

The Boccherini-Berio made an imaginative and effective curtain-raiser and provided an effective introduction to the new hall. The piece starts with a distant snare drum beating out the rhythm of a military march. The music gets louder as the soldiers get closer then softer again as they pass by and ultimately disappear into the night. Berio has very effectively orchestrated the original Boccherini String Quintet movement for full orchestra. At full volume the sound had plenty of weight and presence and the soft passages never became inaudible.

The Rodrigo is a slight piece – rather too much in the same style as his Concierto di “Aranjuez” – but it was charming nonetheless. The Minneapolis Guitar Quartet using acoustic instruments very carefully amplified, played (from memory) with great technical skill and assurance. Robert Cannon played the many trumpet solos with panache.

The suite from “El Sombero de Tres Picos” is often performed – although not as much as it used to be – but very rarely the entire ballet score. As in most ballet scores – Tchaikovsky’s “Sleeping Beauty” and Stravinsky’s “Firebird” come to mind – there is a lot of filler. But it was fun to hear it. This is Stravinsky with a Spanish flavor. That means there are constantly changing metres and rhythms – tricky for both conductor and orchestra. Peter Bay and his players seemed to have no problem at all. The performance was both accurate and exciting. Maestro Bay had even included the small vocal parts, sung with idiomatic fervor by mezzo-soprano Liz Cass.

For the first half of the concert I sat about ten rows from the stage, on the left side. For the second half I moved upstairs to the rear of the first balcony (Mezzanine). The sound in both places was very good, although it seemed to me that there was more warmth in the strings on the ground floor. But that could have been the program. It didn’t help that there were only four double basses used in this concert instead of the usual six or seven.

Overall, my first sound experience in the new hall was very positive, but I would like to hear more performances with different repertoire and ensembles of different sizes before drawing any conclusions.

Opera Comes Home to the  Dell With Bizet’s “Carmen“
The Austin Lyric Opera made its debut at Long Center a few weeks later with Bizet’s Carmen directed by David Gately and conducted by Richard Buckley.

The opening of a new hall is a unique opportunity – a once in a lifetime event in most cities – for orchestras and opera companies to produce something special, either a new work or a production of unusual quality. Sadly, nothing of the sort was on offer by Austin’s only professional opera company – or by the Austin Symphony for that matter. What we got was an off-the-shelf presentation of one of the most tired of warhorses. In spite of Carmen’s popularity I have always felt the piece to be vastly overrated as music or musical theatre and difficult to produce with anything approaching freshness.

The opera was first produced in 1875 for the Opéra-Comique in Paris, a house well-known for the triviality of its productions. It is not surprising that Bizet and his hack writer-librettists gave the theatre a threadbare story peopled almost entirely with stock characters. The music is often lively and tuneful but bear in mind Bizet’s own comment about the “Toreador Song”: “So they want crap? All right I’ll give them crap.” The character of Carmen is the saving grace in this deeply flawed piece. This is a fascinating free-spirited woman and she brought out the best in Bizet. He wrote some wonderful music for her and he requires her not only to sing but to dance.

 Ever since its premiere Carmen has been a signature role for some of the finest mezzos (and occasionally sopranos too) of their time. Beth Clayton has played Carmen in several other productions and she was featured in the Austin performance I heard. Before the performance General Director Kevin Patterson stepped in front of the curtain to announce that she was under the weather but would perform anyway. She sang and acted well physically; from my seat in the last row of the Mezzanine, however, her face was not clear enough for me to evaluate her range of expression.

The remainder of the cast and the chorus were all very capable and the massive unit set (i.e. the same set with embellishments was used in all four acts of the opera) served its purpose and looked good in the new house. Best of all were conductor and orchestra. Richard Buckley is a very experienced maestro and he drew the best out of everyone. There was some expert trumpet-playing and some beautifully rendered solos from horn and cello.

Although I was sitting in one of most distant locations in the hall the sound was very good. Balance between stage and pit was virtually ideal. The solo voices projected well but the chorus in full cry seemed a little congested.

“Die Fledermaus” (the Bat) is coming next in June and I’ll have a chance to re-evaluate the acoustics. One of Austin’s claims to fame is the nightly appearance of millions of bats from beneath the Congress St. Bridge. It is entirely appropriate that the Austin Lyric Opera celebrate this phenomenon by staging this famous Strauss operetta in its new home just a short distance from that very bridge.

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