Guangzhou Opera House

The Guangzhou Opera House with a view of the Pearl River is located in the center of the development of cultural objects of Guangzhou – a huge port city, the capital of the coastal province in southeastern China, bordering Hong Kong and Macau.

Using the most modern technologies in its design and construction, it has become a lasting monument to the New Millennium, confirming Guangzhou’s status as one of the cultural centers of modern Asia.

Located in the new Pearl River City, Guangzhou Opera House is one of the three largest theaters in China. Built of 12,000 tons of steel on an area of 70,000 square meters, the opera includes theater halls with 1800 seats and 400 seats. Both were installed using L-ACOUSTICS sound reinforcement systems supplied by Chinese distributor Right way Audio Consultants and installed by contractor Leifull Light and Sound Enterprises.

The building was designed by London architect Zaha Hadid and represents two boulder-like structures of different sizes, each of which houses a theater. The main building of the Grand Theatre has eight KUDO linear source enclosures and two powerful SB28 subwoofers on each side, and the central channel consists of 10 built-in dV-DOSC linear source enclosures. Both KUDO and dV-DOSC arrays are hidden in the ceiling in accordance with Chinese visual aesthetics. All systems throughout the opera house are controlled by enhanced L-ACOUSTICS LA4 and LA8 controllers.

“Having supplied equipment for such prestigious projects as the Beijing National Bolshoi Theater and the Shanghai Oriental Art Center, we are proud to have worked on such an amazing installation in our hometown of Guangzhou,” says Danny Lau, director of Rightway Audio Consultants, “The Guangzhou Opera House will take center stage in this newly built area of the city and L-ACOUSTICS systems will provide visitors with the best sound of all performances.”

Located in China’s third largest city, the Guangzhou Opera Complex is futuristic in its architecture and theatrical technology. Consisting of two parts, the structure rises as a new powerful symbol on the banks of the Pearl River. The complex with a total area of 42,000 square meters is intended to become a symbol not only of the new Zhujiang business district in Guangzhou, but also of the growing cultural status of China in the new millennium, strengthening its status in the cultural and historical outline of the development of international relations.

Guangzhou was a great harbor on the Maritime Silk Road from the X-XIII centuries, which became the largest eastern port known to the rest of the world during the Song Dynasty. At that time, the flight route from Guangzhou to the Persian Gulf through the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean, was the longest in the world.

Even during the early Ming and Qing dynasties, Guangzhou was the only harbor open to foreign states, and three sea routes started from it. The American ship “Empress of China” first sailed to Guangzhou in 1784, opening a transport route between America and Asia. Currently, there are more than 20 objects of the Maritime Silk Road in Guangzhou, including the Temple of the God of the South Sea, the Huaisheng Mosque, the Temple of Light Filial Piety, the Tomb of the Muslim Sage, the Hualin Temple, as well as the Museum of the Maritime Silk Road on Hailing Island.

The design of the Opera House developed on the basis of the concepts of natural landscape and the fascinating interaction of architecture and nature, it used the principles of erosion, geology and topography. The design of the building was particularly influenced by the local river valleys – and how they are transformed as a result of erosion. The curving lines in this landscape define the territories and zones inside the Opera House, cutting through dramatic internal and external canyons for circulation and allowing natural light to penetrate deep into the building. Smooth transitions between disparate elements and different levels continue this analogy with the landscape. In the interior of the theater hall, custom-made gypsum blocks reinforced with fiberglass (GFRC) were used to continue the architectural language of fluidity and seamless.

When, on May 7, 2010, the Grand Theatre Hall hosted the $202 million grand production of the opera Turandot, lighting control was carried out using two lighting control panels ETC Eos 8000 and Eos client software (for remote programming of the console). Ann Valentino, Eos Product Manager at ETC, comments: “The Eos management system has quickly established itself as the leading solution for managing opera, theater and ballet institutions around the world. It has been specially designed to meet the requirements of such productions, with full backup, split management and multiple user interaction points. The simple yet powerful user interface of Eos is designed with the programming needs of the most complex lighting installations in mind, and the tools are designed for the lighting programmer, lighting designer, lighting assistant designer and production electricians – they all have different needs.”

Guangzhou Opera House was officially presented to the public in 2010 and installed by ETC distributor in China – Hangzhou Yidashi Lighting Equipment Co., Ltd. The commissioning of all electronic equipment was carried out by an experienced technical manager of Yidashi, Wu Jian Wei.

The author of the article is Varvara Sergeevna Kartushina