Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts Toronto, Canada

…[A]n inaugural Canadian Opera Company production of Wagner’s complete Ring of the Nibelung this month showed off well-nigh ideal acoustics for opera: almost eerily transparent but also spacious, with an even frequency response and a good balance between stage and pit.

…the building’s first full opera performance made it clear that as a chamber for music drama the 2,000-seat hall is a smashing success.

… The famous 163-bar opening elaboration on an E-flat major chord felt like the tuning of the building itself.

The orchestra played at the lowest point on the adjustable pit elevator, and the subtle blending of individual sounds so important for Wagner’s complex effects was beautifully evident. And yet almost every individual component could still be discerned within that lustrous, flexible whole.

In many ways, the biggest star was the orchestra, which produced waves of gorgeous sound that, thanks to the centre’s acoustician, Robert Essert, you could feel right down to your bones.

Judging from opening night Tuesday, Canada’s largest city has a new opera house with a near-perfect balance of clarity and spaciousness, and an impressively even response from low frequencies to high overtones.

A few things are settled. Wagner’s Ring is the most monumental undertaking in opera, and the astonishing new Four Seasons Centre is probably the best place in North America to hear and see it.

…[R. Fraser Elliott Hall] is a splendid auditorium in the traditional horseshoe configuration with four upper rings. The house boasts handsome blond wood floors and comfortable seats with plenty of leg room. Best of all, there are only 2,000 seats and the acoustics, the work of the acoustician Robert Essert, seem excellent on first impression. The orchestra sound was bright, yet still rich and detailed. Mostly, the voices carried easily over the ample pit.

The production shows off the COC’s new home to great advantage. The orchestra pit at the Hummingbird Centre held at most 76 musicians. At the Four Seasons Centre, we can finally hear the works as Wagner intended with an orchestra over 100 strong and in the warm, natural acoustics of the new hall. Under conductor Richard Bradshaw, the orchestra plays magnificently throughout, capturing both the drama and the extraordinary richness of the score.

Superb acoustics!

Considerable attention was given to acoustics: the building rests on huge rubber pads to shut out sounds from subways and streetcars. The London firm of Sound Space Design designed the proscenium so that voices would project and seems to have succeeded admirably, given the appealing balance of voices and robust orchestral sonorities.