Liège or La Scala? – Part 1: Size Doesn’t Matter
by Mark Montgomery
“It really depends on how you look at it.” My new drinking partner lifts the champagne flute to his broad, grizzled-grey face. I stumbled in from a cold and blustery late October night. Decaying autumn leaves had me slip-sliding away into a theatre as majestic as it is ancient. I am here to review the opening night of Kata Kabonova at the Opera Royale de Wallonie (ORW). I have time to spare before the bell.
“…depends on…” I take the bait. The conversation had drifted into pondering how many opera houses there were in Belgium. My fellow concertgoer shows no evidence of having a neck. Agitatedly, he twirls an unlit pipe. Of stocky build and red of face, he could pass for Ernest Hemmingway.
“There are three or four opera houses in Belgium” he says.
“Well, obviously, you have La Monnaie, in Brussels…” I offer limited wisdom on the subject.
“Obviously” There is a whiff of impatience in his voice. “And then you have Opera Ballet Vlaanderen.” The Hemmingway lookalike makes a fair point. Vlaams Opera is one company – however, it operates two different opera houses. One in the Flemish city Ghent and the other in Antwerp.
Opera Royale de Wallonie
Statue of Andre Gretry in front of the Opera Royale de Wallonie
“I must confess that I have visited opera houses in Prague, Budapest, St Petersburg and Warsaw.” I confide…“but in Belgium, I have only visited the ORW” I say with a sense of shame.
“You are not alone. Most people will travel halfway around the globe and pay…how do you say…le peau de la fesse….”
“The skin off their butts?” I translate.
“Yes” says Ernest “They will pay the skin off ze butts to see a performance in some prestigious place!” I fear he will snap his pipe into two from sheer frustration. “Just because it is in a foreign country doesn’t mean it is better than what we have at home!”
“I agree with you completely.”
“I wish more local people would appreciate what is right here! Right on their doorsteps!” The pipe survives.
Tonight, we have found sanctuary in the third (or fourth) opera house in Belgium – the Opera Royal de Wallonie (ORW), in the city of Liège. I am comfortable in seat D17. My surroundings are plush and sumptuous. This house undoubtedly stands shoulder to shoulder with the other two (or three) opera houses in the country. But how do we compare internationally, I ask myself. Are we better than or worse than, say La Scala? What are the touch points between these two noble houses?
The cathedral to Opera, in Milan has twice the seating capacity – 2,030 places, compared to the 1,044 places at the Liège opera. Does this make La Scala twice as good as the ORW? The Prague Opera House, a heart-stoppingly magnificent theatre, has a seating capacity of 1,041. Based on these numbers alone, would it be wise to conclude that La Scala is twice as good as either the ORW or Czech State Opera? Or is it as good as the two put together? The Metropolitan Opera House, in New York has a capacity of 3,975 places. Does this mean that their performances are twice as good as those of La Scala? This could only be considered a logical evaluation in some Kafkaesque world. Manifestly, the size of the theatre has no relevance to its excellence in hosting the Princess of art forms. What does matter is the acoustics, the level of comfort, the quality of the performance and the line of vision.
Both La Scala and the Opera Royal de Wallonie are built on the same horseshoe shape design. Both have a par terre level as well as an arrangement of galleries and boxes. Not all seats are equally good. However, each seat does give a direct view of the stage. Acoustics at La Scala are without doubt, of superb quality. Not to be outdone, the ORW was the subject of a €31 million refurbishment program. The facelift included the installation of a L-Acoustics line-array system on either side of the subtitling projection beam above the stage, before the stage curtains. The amplifiers are located close to the speakers and are remote controlled, through a network, like all other equipment in the ORW. The result is an irreproachable high-fidelity delivery of pristine sound.
In every aspect that matters, a performance at the Opera Royal de Wallonie is every bit as professional, creative and entertaining as what would be enjoyed at La Scala.
La Scala
