The Royal Opera House (ROH) in London has unveiled new facilities that will “make the Royal Opera House London’s newest day time destination.” In addition, ROH has upgraded the acoustics its Linbury studio.
First, the facilities: ROH now boasts new restaurants, public spaces and a shop. These will be open each day from 10am, encouraging the public to use ROH as more than a destination for opera. Its foyer and entrances have also been refurbished, offering a 50% increase in public space.
Further, ROH has refitted the Linbury Studio and renamed it the Linbury Theatre. It boasts active acoustics, where the natural acoustic of the room is enhanced through an electronic system, and can seat an audience of 400.
Said ROH CEO Alex Beard: “Our brand new entrances, extended foyers and terraces, new café, new bar and restaurant, Linbury Theatre … [and an] extensive programme of daytime events, activities and festivals, make ROH London’s newest day time destination. Open every day from 10am, we want as many people as possible to experience our art forms and get a taste of the remarkable creativity at play here.”
Added Ned Crowe, associate in acoustic design at project consultants Arup: “Through detailed analysis of the old Linbury Theatre acoustics and early acoustic modelling studies, we demonstrated that the natural reverberance of the original theatre could not be significantly increased. A 21st Century solution to this challenge was to establish the performance requirements for an electronic active architecture system. Through digital processing, the system enhances the natural acoustic of the room, simulating the reverberance of a larger space whilst maintaining the intimacy of the smaller scale theatre.”
In total, ROH spent GBP50.7m (€57.1m) on the refit, with all of the money raised through private donations.
